"But people sticking with Obama is my _pet pea_." [NP]

Charles C Doyle cdoyle at UGA.EDU
Wed Nov 21 16:07:10 UTC 2012


And "peevish" is not especially uncommon . . . .

--Charlie

________________________________________
From: American Dialect Society [ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] on behalf of Herb Stahlke [hfwstahlke at GMAIL.COM]
Sent: Wednesday, November 21, 2012 11:01 AM
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Also used as past participle, as in "being peeved," but I don't think I've
heard that usage since I was a child.

Herb


On Wed, Nov 21, 2012 at 5:52 AM, Damien Hall <damien.hall at newcastle.ac.uk>wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Damien Hall <damien.hall at NEWCASTLE.AC.UK>
> Subject:      "But people sticking with Obama is my _pet pea_." [NP]
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Looks like an eggcorn to me: a pea being something irritating, as in the
> story of The Princess and the Pea, it replaces the original 'peeve', which
> largely survives only in the phrase 'pet peeve'.  Not in the database yet,
> though!
>
> Damien
>
> --
>
> Damien Hall
> Newcastle University (UK)
>
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