Eggcorn

[Arnold M. Zwicky]

On Dec 27, 2004, at 11:48 AM, Wilson Gray wrote:

> Heard on today's The People's Court, spoken by Judge Marilyn Millan:
>
> How, _on God's green acre_, do you explain this?
>
> For the younger members: back in the day, there was a popular novel and
> a movie with the title, "God's Little Acre,"

or, as larry horn and dennis preston point out, the tv show "Green
Acres".

>  which the good judge
> appears to have crossed with the common expression, "on God's green
> earth."

...which makes it, not an eggcorn strictly speaking, but an instance of
its cousin the idiom blend -- on which, see recent Language Log pieces
by geoff nunberg, mark liberman, and me:

http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/001725.html

http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/001737.html

http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/001745.html

arnold