An Eggcorn in the Wild

[Laurence Horn]

At 4:01 PM -0500 1/24/09, Doug Harris wrote:
>An eggcorn in the wild!
>Thanks, 'Alan, for ''shown the world their metal."
>dh
>
>On Sat, Jan 24, 2009 at 10:19 AM, Alan Wild <AWild at ds.uri.edu> wrote:
>
>I'm feeling very lucky:  I've lived to see the Red Sox win TWO World
>Series... |-)  and this generation of Americans has shown the world
>their metal with their choice for the 44th U.S. president!
>
Well, maybe it's an eggcorn now, but if so, it's one that's a lot
more etymologically motivated than most.  "Mettle" and "metal"
started out as the same word.

LH

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