Facebook: "The _mother-load_ of recordings!" [NT]

[Laurence Horn]

Of course it's also possible as a null hypothesis that this is a simple misspelling, i.e. that there are speakers who have "load" 'load' and "load" 'lode' stored as homonyms, and for whom no reanalysis/eggcornification as such has taken place.

LH

On May 10, 2013, at 5:31 AM, ADSGarson O'Toole wrote:

> Wilson Gray wrote
>> Subject:      Facebook: "The _mother-load_ of recordings!" [NT]
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>>
>> x
>> --
>> -Wilson
>
> Arnold has this in the The Eggcorn Database - v. 0.5
>
> http://eggcorns.lascribe.net/english/531/motherload/
>
> [Begin excerpt]
> mother lode » motherload
> Classification: English
> Spotted in the wild:
>
>    “I registered for a few things. (After talking to R… it seems like
> we will indeed recover the motherload of all baby objects from her
> garage, leaving us not needing much stuff.)” (E-mail to Elizabeth
> Daingerfield Zwicky from a friend, October 2004)
>    “The motherload of cb info,…” (link)
>    “I found the Moso motherload! … I’ma happy man.” (link)
>
> Analyzed or reported by:
>
>    Anna, on this site (link)
>    Arnold Zwicky (The Fall Eggcorn Crop, on Language Log)
>
> “Load” is a great deal more familiar than “lode”, and the mother lode
> contains loads of (’lots of’) stuff, so the reinterpretation is
> understandable.
>
> There are also some cites with “motherload” reinterpreted as ‘a mother
> of a load, a huge load’: “Protect your computer from a motherload of
> viruses, spyware Web site, company offer free ways to protect PC…”
> (link)
>
> {End excerpt]
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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