"a jar"

[Arnold M. Zwicky]

On Aug 15, 2006, at 9:36 AM, Charlie Doyle wrote:

> Speaking of "diminutive" constructions:  Recently, at least twice--
> and from different speakers--I have heard (regarding a window in
> one instance, a door in the other), "Leave it  open just a jar."

interesting reanalysis.  here are some spellings suggesting the first
stage, with "ajar" reanalyzed as the indefinite article plus the noun
"jar":

Luckily I used the one remaining brain cell that hadn't been
intoxicated and kept my foot in the dorm door frame, leaving the door
a jar.
www.getjealous.com/ getjealous.php?
action=showdiaryentry&diary_id=132454&go=britton

In the bathroom of a large apartment building: "When taking showers,
please leave the bathroom door a jar. This will prevent the plaster
from peeling.
www.netjeff.com/humor/item.cgi?file=StupidSigns

you can't be entirely sure about these, since they might just be
misspellings. (it's not in Brians, by the way, or anywhere on the
eggcorn site, even in comments.)  but they're suggestive.

if this is a reanalysis -- and, once again, you'd like to talk to
some of these sources to see if they can explain what was in their
minds (though this is often a fruitless exercise -- people will say
things like, "oh that's just the way i thought it was spelled") --
then the question is: how do we get from the meaning of "jar" (*any*
meaning of "jar") to the adverbial sense of "a jar".  well, maybe
people just think the whole thing is just an incalculable idioms
(there are a lot of those), whose whole means 'open just a bit', the
contribution of "jar" having been lost in time.

if so, this is a reanalysis, but not an eggcorn.

then we get examples like charlie's:

Leave it for 2 to 3 hours, then open the door a jar and fill the shed
with insectiside. Hope this helps.
www.kryogenix.org/days/2003/07/31/wasps

I opened my door a jar and saw what resembled Maxwell at the bottom
of the stairs with Scarlet Vogue and two others I had never seen before.
www.author-me.com/fiction/circleofdragons2.htm

here, "jar" now conveys 'bit, small amount' (though you can't plug it
back into the originals with that meaning).  i'm not sure what the
mechanisms of this development are, though.

arnold

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