Eggcorn?

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On Tue, Mar 10, 2009 at 10:07 AM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu> wrote:
>
> At 1:47 AM -0700 3/10/09, Margaret Lee wrote:
> >At a recent Phish concert here in Hampton, a Phish fan "Phish head")
> >(female) was quoted in the local newspaper as saying, "It's
> >comforting to know that I'm not the only one that wears mixmatch
> >clothing and is into other things besides cell phones and
> >bling-bling."  Is this use of "mixmatch" for "mismatch" an eggcorn?
> >I don't know if this was her pronunciation or the reporter's
> >spelling of the word.
> >
> Aha.  We recently discussed "mishmash", "mishmosh", et al., and this
> makes it eminently clear that "mix ('n') match" is an ingredient in
> the olla podrida.  I'm not sure "mismatch" is, but it could be.

Halfway between "mixmatch" and "mishmash" is "mixmash":

http://eggcorns.lascribe.net/english/1094/mixmash/
http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/wordroutes/1679/

And Nancy Friedman has written about "mixedmaxed", which she supposes is an
eggcorn for "mismatched":

http://nancyfriedman.typepad.com/away_with_words/2008/03/wandering-idiom.html


--Ben Zimmer

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