Eggcorn or tip of the slung?

[Wilson Gray]

On Aug 10, 2005, at 6:04 PM, Arnold M. Zwicky wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Arnold M. Zwicky" <zwicky at CSLI.STANFORD.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: Eggcorn or tip of the slung?
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> On Aug 10, 2005, at 12:14 PM, Wilson Gray wrote:
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>> "He was shouting, 'Eff you!' and other explicatives."
>
> oh lord!  ca. 1,190 raw google webhits for "explicative deleted" (as
> against ca. 63,700 for "expletive deleted")!  looks eggcornish.  i'm
> guessing the sound-symbolic value of the /plIk/ plays some role.
>
> there are even 4 hits for "shout explicatives" (as against ca. 650
> for "shout expletives").
>
> i'm still in amazement at "woeth me" and "valevictorian".  and now
> this.
>
> arnold
>

"Valevictorian" makes a kind of sense, given that students compete for
the honor and no one in high school takes six class-hours of Latin a
week for four years anymore. But "woeth me"?! God wot!

-Wilson