Eggcorn

[Wilson Gray]

On 7/19/05, Arnold M. Zwicky <zwicky at csli.stanford.edu> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Arnold M. Zwicky" <zwicky at CSLI.STANFORD.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: Eggcorn
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On Jul 19, 2005, at 6:44 AM, Wilson Gray wrote:
>
> > "Congenital defect," not "congenital deficit." Anosmia is an incurable
> > physical defect that you can be born with, if you're lucky, or one
> > that you can develope later in life, as I have, if you're unlucky, as
> > I am. As you imply, there's nothing inherently eggcornish about
> > "congenital deficit," if "congenital deficit" is what's relevant.
>
> "defect", "deficit", and "deficiency" share an origin in latin de
> +fac- 'to be wanting, to lack' and also overlap in meaning.  AHD4's
> definition b for "deficit" -- "A deficiency or impairment in mental
> or physical functioning" -- would certainly fit anosmia, so
> "congenital deficit" should be completely understandable as applied
> to anosmia.  yet i agree with wilson that it's not quite right.

OTOH, I admit to feeling, after giving it some thought, that
"congenital deficit" is not obviously an eggcorn. And, looking at the
bright side, when you have anosmia, absolutely *everything* smells
like fresh air. That's why the changing of the kitty litter has become
my permanent chore. Unfortunately, there are only two tastes: like
distilled water and not like distilled water.

True story. A guy with anosmia decided to amaze and amuse his friends
by chugging a bottle of pepper sauce. At the hospital, it was
explained to him that capsaicin affects the pain receptors and not the
taste buds. [No, it was *not* me!]

-Wilson

> i think that the problem here is not that "congenital deficit" has
> the wrong noun in it, but that "congenital defect" is the
> conventional collocation for the meaning in question.  that is, we
> *could* say "congenital deficit", but mostly we *do* say "congenital
> defect".  (this sort of thing is hell for the non-native speaker.)
> google webhits: ca. 49,800 for "congenital defect", only 177 for
> "congenital deficit".  (lots of webhits for "congenital deficiency"
> -- ca. 13,500 -- but almost all with reference to enzymes and similar
> things: a deficiency *of* antithrombin, factor VII, HFE, C9, alpha-1
> proteinase inhibitor, etc., to pick a few examples from google.)
>
> MWDEU has no entry for "defect, deficit, deficiency", but it does
> have one for "defective, deficient", citing british writers from the
> 70s and 80s who claim that "defective" emphasizes a flaw,
> "deficiency" a lack.  MWDEU says that this discrimination isn't
> wrong, but that there's no hard and fast rule.  in any case, anosmia
> is both a flaw and a lack (the greek prefix a- being used generally
> for lacks of various sorts), so the rule isn't much help here.
>
> arnold (zwicky at csli.stanford.edu), sorry to hear of wilson's anosmia
>


--
-Wilson Gray