eggcorn versus malaprop

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On 1/31/06, James Landau <jjjrlandau at earthlink.net> wrote:
>
> How do you distinguish between an eggcorn and a malaprop?
>
> At work the big boss from DC, after the obligatory sarcasm about our
> inability to keep schedules and our tendency to let things drop through the
> cracks (i.e. our office Christmas tree ws still up), twice used the
> expression "put your best face forward".  Afterwards I got into a
> disagreement with the local boss as to whether this expression should be
> classified as an eggcorn or as a malaprop.

I'd put it in a third category: idiom blend. The expression blends
"put your best foot forward" with "put the best face on (something)".

See this Language Log post on idiom blends:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/001737.html


--Ben Zimmer

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