"the religious rite"

[Arnold M. Zwicky]

On Oct 25, 2006, at 1:44 PM, i wrote:

> a student passed the following on to me, written by a (gay) friend of
> his:
>
> ... well I get enough [flak] from the religious rite already about
> not being able to orientate myself correctly...
>
> this looks distinctly eggcornish -- taking the expression to refer to
> religious folks who participate in rites.  though it could be
> wretched spelling.

we are fortunate in that the original writer is around to be
questioned.  my student asked his friend what he meant.  from the
answer:
-----
he actually understood religious rite as referring to a constellation
of beliefs about morality, and especially the alleged sinfulness of
homosexuality, as connected to the church. i asked him whether he
just spelled "right" wrong, but he said that he never understood
"right" in "religious right" to be connected to the political right
wing (and he knows about the left/right distinction), but as solely
connected to a religious doctrine.
-----

so, for this one person at least, it does seem to be an eggcorn.

arnold

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