latest Mark Peters on eggcorns

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On 8/9/06, William Salmon <william.salmon at yale.edu> wrote:
> In honor of the attention given to eggcorns in this higher education
> piece, I give a particularly juicy eggcorn:
>
> pustule > pus jewel
>
> Google Examples:
> The only thing they can do is pop them one by one and remove the pus
> jewel inside to stop them spreading if they do not clear up on their
> own.
>
> Two days ago a nice sized pus jewel popped up on Mr . Eliot's ring
> finger . It was the worst one he's ever had.
>
> It barely hurts at all though and doesn't seem inflamed, except it gets
> a weird pus-jewel type bubble when I wear my glasses...

That's a beaut. Just think, if this had been noted on Language Log a
few years ago, we might all be referring to "pus jewels" instead of
"eggcorns"...


--Ben Zimmer

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