sleuth = slew

[Laurence Horn]

At 9:04 AM -0800 2/7/06, Benjamin Zimmer wrote:
>I came across this eggcornish substitution recently:
>
>-----
>http://ethnicloft.com/blog/2006/02/04/north-american-slave-narratives/
>The University Library of the University of North Carolina at Chapel
>Hill has a sleuth of digitalized literature that documents the
>American southern history and culture.
>-----
>
>I'm hesitant to put this in the Eggcorn Database, since I don't see
>any possible semantic rationalization for using "sleuth". So is it a
>plain old malaprop?

I was going to suggest motivating it as a blend of "slew" and "rath",
but then I realized I was thinking of "raft".  Never mind.

LH

>
>This is a pretty common substitution, as it turns out. Here are some
>other recent examples from a blog search:
>
>-----
>http://ogadget.com/should-buy-intelmac-imac-or-not-8.html
>So it seems that iMac is one the most stylish and efficient desktop in
>the world with a sleuth of innovative features like 2.0 GHz. Intel
>Core Duo processor, a gig of RAM and cool iSight camera all in a small
>form factor.
>-----
>http://dibleydoo.blogspot.com/2006/01/i-fear-most-negligible-things.html
>The magical way music brings forth a sleuth of emotions, and feelings.
>-----
>http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=1694043&blogID=1893461
>I took a sleuth of tests on Emode out of boredom during the holidays.
>-----
>http://kiwisandmangos.blogspot.com/2006/01/something-sad.html
>all i do is work and go to shows (i have a sleuth of concerts lined
>up, my only happiness).
>-----
>http://www.unixtutorials.info/go.php?id=448
>After the first round of benchmarks, I received a sleuth of e-mails
>asking for the raw numbers.
>-----
>http://senorcarnival.livejournal.com/79232.html
>There was a whole sleuth of classes that I could take as well.
>-----
>
>(There are also scattered references to "sleuth" as a collective name
>for a group of bears, which looks like a variant of "sloth (of
>bears)". I doubt that this sense has much of an influence on the
>"slew"/"sleuth" substitution, however.)
>
>
>--Ben Zimmer
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org