Wife's eggcorn

[Mark A. Mandel]

Jonathan Lighter writ:
    >>>>>

"Son of a whore" is old in English, older perh. than "son of a bitch."

  I heard it once or twice in New England about thirty years ago, and the
recent fictional exx. I've
seen are all from that area - esp. from Maine.
 <<<<<

You'll find "whoreson" all over Shakespeare. ... OK, here's what I done:

 - Google "Shakespeare concordance" (without quotation marks); it must be a
pretty common target, because Google completed the expression after
"Shakespeare con"

 - click on first hit, www.languid.org/cgi-bin/shakespeare
   They note:
        The entire work (if a poem) or scene (if a play) will be
        shown with the search terms highlighted.

 - enter "whoreson" in the search box. Here are the results:

http://www.languid.org/cgi-bin/shakespeare?st=search&keywords=whoreson&operation=Submit

Shakespeare Concordance
Search Results

All files that contain the words

    whoreson

THE TWO GENTLEMEN OF VERONA : Act 4, scene 4
KING HENRY IV, PART II : Act 2, scene 2
TROILUS AND CRESSIDA : Act 2, scene 1
TROILUS AND CRESSIDA : Act 5, scene 3
KING LEAR : Act 1, scene 4
THE TEMPEST : Act 1, scene 1
THE TWO GENTLEMEN OF VERONA : Act 2, scene 5
KING HENRY IV, PART II : Act 1, scene 2
KING LEAR : Act 1, scene 1
THE COMEDY OF ERRORS : Act 4, scene 4
KING HENRY IV, PART II : Act 2, scene 4
TROILUS AND CRESSIDA : Act 2, scene 3
KING HENRY IV, PART I : Act 2, scene 2
KING HENRY IV, PART I : Act 3, scene 3
KING HENRY IV, PART II : Act 3, scene 2
HAMLET : Act 5, scene 1
ROMEO AND JULIET : Act 4, scene 4
KING HENRY IV, PART I : Act 2, scene 4
TROILUS AND CRESSIDA : Act 5, scene 1
CYMBELINE : Act 2, scene 1
LOVE'S LABOURS LOST : Act 4, scene 3
THE TAMING OF THE SHREW : Act 4, scene 1
KING LEAR : Act 2, scene 2
ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA : Act 5, scene 2

That's 24 scenes if I count correctly. Anyone who wants to open each scene
and count the occurrences of the word (bold, with yellow highlight) is
welcome to do so.

-- Mark
[This text prepared with Dragon NaturallySpeaking.]