Thou shalt not eggcorn?

[Baker, John]

        This particular blooper is undoubtedly influenced by the Bill of
Rights, which consists of the first ten amendments to the U.S.
Constitution.

John Baker


-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf
Of Benjamin Zimmer
Sent: Monday, March 13, 2006 6:21 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: Thou shalt not eggcorn?

On 3/13/06, Mark Peters <markpeters33 at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> A few weeks ago, a friend was stuck riding with a slightly loony
> cabbie. Along with some other disturbing behavior, he started grilling

> her about religion, and at some point he came up with this beauty:
>
>   "Do you know all the Ten Amendments?"
>
>   Pretty wild, huh? This guy's giving quizzes and he doesn't even know

> what they're called.
>
>   Anyway, I would love to find this in print too, but all my searches
> all lead me toward discussion of real amendments. Has anyone heard
this before?

Richard Lederer had it in one of his laundry lists of student bloopers,
included in _Fractured English_:

http://www.verbivore.com/arcblpr.htm
"Afterwards, Moses went up on Mount Cyanide to get the Ten Amendments."

Lederer never cites any sources for his purported malapropisms, so I
tend to think of them all as apocryphal. Nice to see one actually
spotted in the wild.


--Ben Zimmer

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