new coinage?

[Chris F Waigl]

neil wrote:

>
>I have seen 2 instances in American publications where 'toe the line' has
>been rendered 'tow the line'.
>
Google News currently lists 24 occurrences for "[tow | towed | towing]
the line" and 16 for "[tow | towed | towing] the * line", with "*"
replacing (vaguely in order of frequency) "party", "company",
"government", "liberal", "cautionary". Other adjectives are used as well.

This is one of the eggcorns I remember learning in the wrong form --
from my reading, which is where I learnt most of my English. I explained
it to myself in a way that was probably influenced by the German figure
"am selben Strick ziehen", literally "to pull on the same rope", meaning
to work actively towards the same goals as someone else or some group. I
only started to wonder when the strange, inexplicable "misspelling"
_toe_ showed up occasionally.


Chris Waigl

--
a chisel writing -- http://lascribe.net/
        "Away, you scullion! you rampallian! you fustilarian!
                I'll tickle your catastrophe."
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