Eggcorn?

[Jonathan Lighter]

Or "like wafflers."

JL

Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM> wrote:
---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Jonathan Lighter
Subject: Re: Eggcorn?
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The good news is that Google as yet provides no hits for "spreading like wallflowers."

JL

Laurence Horn wrote:
---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Laurence Horn
Subject: Re: Eggcorn?
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At 12:33 PM +0100 5/12/05, Michael Quinion wrote:
>A subscriber has e-mailed me thus: "I am a college instructor, and
>the other day I was grading papers when I came across this: 'In the
>early 1960s, rock and roll was spreading like wildflowers.' I found
>it oddly apt and a little poetic, if totally wrong."
>
It may be wrong, but it's spreading like...well, let's see:

"spreading like wildfire" 42,200
"spreading like wildflowers" 352

Larry

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