"new" eggcorn--formenting

victor steinbok aardvark66 at GMAIL.COM
Wed Sep 7 19:07:27 UTC 2011


My reminder of "foment" is usually The Fugs song Here Come the Levellers,
where they mock Sir Kenneth Newman, Metro Police commissioner in London, for
claiming that Anarchists and Trotskyite elements were behind the 1985
Tottenham riots.

The Anarchists and Trotskyists are out fomenting riots,
> Sounds a little silly, but the stupid Brits will buy it.
>
Unemployme­nt apathy, no future down the line

While our upper class Governors live lovely lives of crime....

And here come the Levellers, ...


This was interestingly re-interpreted by some commentator on HuffPo:

http://goo.gl/yDhaF

> "The Anarchists and Trotskyite­s are out fomenting riots!
> Sounds a little silly but the stupid people will buy it
> Unemployme­nt apathy, no future down the line
> While our upper class Governors live lovely lives of crime." -The Fugs
> "Revelers"


It is quite possible that this particular album (No More Slavery) was my
first encounter with the word "foment" and is stuck. Twenty-five years later
the songs appears quite applicable again.

VS-)

On Wed, Sep 7, 2011 at 2:23 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:

>
> On Wed, Sep 7, 2011 at 2:13 PM, victor steinbok <aardvark66 at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> > non-rhoticity might help, actually
>
> Indeed! *Try* to keep a nigger from using "forment"! You'll be trying a
> *while"!
>
> --
> -Wilson

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org



More information about the Ads-l mailing list