"on beha(l)ve of"

[Arnold M. Zwicky]

elizabeth daingerfield zwicky came across this one recently, in the
version "on behave of" (presumably pronounced just like "behalf", but
with final v instead of f).  an enormous number of google webhits
(ca. 25,700 raw hits), plus about 500 for the spelling "behalve",
which keeps the word connected to "half".  some examples:

Subject: on behave of Tennessee Orthotic and Prosthetic State
Meeting ...
www.lists.ufl.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0501&L=oandp-l&P=8286

Her noble work on behave of senior-persons in recent years has raised
the level of awareness of the need for aging with dignity and the
possibility of ...
www.msmagazineblogs.com/smealreport/archives/2006/02/
on_the_death_of.html

This press release is republished on behave of the International
Submarine Races ...
www.dt.navy.mil/pao/release/press/IntSubmRaces.html

The subjects are users, which can be living organisms, usually
humans, or programs acting on behalve of them.
cocoondev.org/books/daisy_docs_book--20060309-08:06:35/publications/
html-chunked/output/dsy19.html

 From the deepest of my heart, I thank you all for doing what you're
doing on behalve of so many of us. Also a BIG thank you to many of
you finding the time, ...
weblog.greenpeace.org/oceandefenders/archive/2005/12/day_four_of_no.html

it's not in MWDEU, Brians, Garner, or Fiske (at this point i stopped
looking).

presumably a classical malapropism, possibly based on a mishearing.

arnold (zwicky at csli.stanford.edu)

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