eggcorn illicit

Garson O'Toole adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM
Tue Apr 17 19:00:15 UTC 2012


David A. Daniel wrote
> Got kind of a cool eggcorn. Unfortunately it's from today's Daily Show
> publicity email, which is kind of surprising as one likes to think of them
> as the smart ones. Maybe, being really extra smart, they are coining a new
> usage. The quote is: "On her Vagesty's Secret Service: The story of Secret
> Service agents illiciting prostitutes should be dominating news networks,
> but it can't because of Hilary Rosen's stupid remark." No, I don't mean
> vagesty, I mean illicit. Interesting new usage would be: "verb, to solicit
> something illicit," yes?

Interesting. The Eggcorn Forum has a thread that discusses related phrases:
illiciting sex, eliciting sex

http://eggcorns.lascribe.net/forum/viewtopic.php?id=3531

Admittedly, the Daily Show use of "illiciting" might be deliberate
word-play humor.

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