Eggcorn: tract vs. track

[Beverly Flanigan]

At 10:01 AM 5/2/2006, you wrote:
>>I've got a potential eggcorn, though it's probably already been noted
>>somewhere: I just got final projects in from the students in my graduate
>>class, and one of them consistently writes about "tracts" within the
>>English major in her introduction.
>>
>>We have "tracks" in our English major here--creative writing, tech
>>writing, literature, rhet/comp--but "tracts" makes sense, if one thinks
>>of the definition of something relatively small and separate from other
>>tracts in the area. (I'll try to find out if that's actually what she
>>was thinking when she wrote it if i see her around.)
>"tenure tract" and "tract lighting" are not unknown either, and I've
>encountered shifts in the opposite direction too:  "digestive track"
>and the like are quite common.
>
>Larry
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

"Tenure tract" has even been used by members of my department, alas.  (I've
always been the unofficial proofreader for our documents, but what will
happen now that I've retired?!?)

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