Weak lean / (weakling) eggcorn

Laurence Horn laurence.horn at YALE.EDU
Tue Nov 1 14:58:24 UTC 2011


On Nov 1, 2011, at 10:52 AM, Arnold Zwicky wrote:

> On Nov 1, 2011, at 7:22 AM, Randy Alexander wrote:
>
>> A friend sent me this eggcorn:
>>
>> http://freetheanimal.com/2011/10/and-why-are-you-paleo.html#comment-84158
>
> (explanation: the question "Why are you Paleo?" is asking about the Paleo Diet and its accompanying lifestyle.)
>
>> I am Paleo because today my blood pressure was 110 over 70, and in January
>> of 2010 it was about 190 over 140.
>>
>> I weighed about 215 back then, today I am about 145, and I am not a weak
>> lean.
>
> (i've removed the rest of the quote, because it comes from other comments on this website; but these two sentences are from a single comment.)
>
> i found one other instance:
>
>  You're right, I'm not in my twenties, but I'm not a weak lean kid. I really can handle myself.
> http://www.rsbots.net/forums/index.php?topic=66183.75
>
> arnold
>
There are a lot of hits under "weaklean" spelled as one word, although most (but not all) involve someone's twitter or facebook tag of that form (sorry, I don't know the lingo).

LH

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