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

[Jonathan Lighter]

Yeah, how many humans could guess that "motherload" isn't the actual
spelling?

On the other hand, many of those who spell it right must think that {lode}
is how you spell {load}.

JL


On Fri, May 10, 2013 at 3:28 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: Facebook: "The _mother-load_ of recordings!" [NT]
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> 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]
> >>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >>
> >> 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]
> >
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> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
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> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
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