Eggcorn: illegible?

[Chris F. Waigl]

On Fri, 2006-03-03 at 10:07 -0500, RonButters at AOL.COM wrote:

> I'm not sure if this qualifies as an eggcorn or not, but it is a solecism in
> the same neighborhood and not quite a malapropism, it seems to me. the
> following was sent from the Dke University Faculty Arts and Sciences Council
> Executive Committee to the Council members (3rd paragraph; I'm not talking about the
> comma splice, which is sic):
>
> Kathy Peterson has notified you if you are up for re-election. Please take an
> active role within your unit helping to select your new representative. Your
> unit will get a slate of every illegible person, please take time during the
> next faculty meeting to nominate a couple of people who will be in residence
> and are will to serve.

If I type "ellegible", my spell-checker suggests "illegible" before
"eligible". (If the misspelling is "elegible", the suggestions come in
the inverse order.) I imagine this kind of memo is usually prepared with
software that checks the spelling.

Chris Waigl

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