?Eggcorn?

[Wilson Gray]

On Jul 22, 2005, at 4:59 PM, Laurence Horn 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: ?Eggcorn?
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> --------
>
>> Author's note:
>>
>> If you use this bookmark-importing tool,
>>
>> "Old bookmarks will not be _overridden_."
>>
>> My first thought was that this should be ",,, overwritten." But then,
>> I
>> thought. "Well, if a bookmark is looked at as a kind of command to the
>> computer, then, perhaps, 'override' is the verb to use."
>>
>> -Wilson Gray
>
> Interesting.  For me, "written" and "ridden" are quite distinct
> phonologically, although of course "writer" and "rider" are the same
> (modulo a bit of vowel lengthening for the latter--or is it the
> ladder?--in some registers).   This makes it seem more likely to me
> (although not certain) that "overridden" was intended here.
>
> L
>

That "overriden" was intended makes better since - uh, I mean "sense,"
of course (damn! sometime, them homonym be trickih!) -  to me, too,
Larry.

-Wilson