a >> the *and more*

[Arnold M. Zwicky]

geoff nunberg sent me a query yesterday about "all of the sudden" for
"all of a sudden".  turns out that this one's in Brians and Garner
and a pile of on-line advice material.  a number of commenters on the
eggcorn database have suggested it as a possible eggcorn.  and it's
frequent and widespread -- over a million raw webhits, from all over
the place:

I all of the sudden feel stupid..
mb.sparknotes.com/mb.epl?b=2417&m=1186618&t=299364

is there anyreason why my RSS feed would fail all of the sudden?
www.pixelpost.org/forum/showthread.php?t=85

All Of The Sudden, Mel Gibson Doesn't Seem So Bad. More tolerance and
promotion of diversity, courtesy of the anti-war left.
www.blogmosis.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-view.cgi/1/entry/32800

the OED entry for "sudden" has a subentry for "of a sudden"
'suddenly' that notes this was in fact earlier "of the sudden", a
variant that is now obsolete (1590 is their last cite).  the modern
occurrences are mostly of "all of a sudden" -- unmodified "of a
sudden" is just impossible for me -- though there's an 1890 cite from
Arthur Conan Doyle.

presumably the occurrences of "all of the sudden" that are all over
the place these days involve later replacements of "a" by "the", and
are not survivals of long-ago "the".  but the question is worth
looking at.

i'd somehow missed "all of the sudden" until yesterday, though i was
aware of "all on a sudden", which gets about 33,200 raw webhits:

... as he sat on the shore with his rod, looking at the sparkling
waves and watching his line, all on a sudden his float was dragged
away deep into the ...
podcasts.yahoo.com/series?s=cd5e72f9215e8c4d537b630b24c33ac3

the sea, all on a sudden, began to roar, and rise in billows; the
birds flew about astonished; the cattle ran crying in the fields;
and ...
www.theamericanview.com/index.php?id=17

Maradona is a player of that class who can change the environment all
on a sudden just being himself present.
www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/worldcup/2006/06/maradona_mayhem.html

the OED lists "on/upon a/the sudden" but labels them archaic.  most
of the cites i've looked at either have a somewhat old-fashioned tone
to them (to my ears) or come from Indian sources (the expressions may
have survived in Indian English).  (the OED also lists the obsolete
variants "at a/the sudden" and "in a sudden".)

at this point i wondered if "a" had been replaced by "the" in other
idiomatic expressions.  i looked for "once in the while" (for "once
in a while") and got 746 raw webhits

Every once in the while the color goes very blue on the Old Faithful
WebCam image. Why?
www.nps.gov/yell/tours/livecams/oldfaithful/problems.htm

Working Stiff is a webzine that aims to help average working people
put in fewer hours for more pay and win arguments with the boss once
in the while.
www.google.com/Top/Society/Work/Labor-Management_Relations/

And thanks for the reminder. I need a good kick in pants every once
in the while on this topic.
mytopography.com/2006/08/25/friday-notebook/

this time the OED has no "the" variant (though it gives "once and a
while" as an "occasional" variant; "once and a while" is already in
the eggcorn database: http://eggcorns.lascribe.net/english/264/once-
and-a-while/).

"once in the while" isn't in MWDEU, Brians, Garner, Trask, Fiske.
Garner does list "once in while" and "once and while" as manglings of
"once in a while", though.  "once in while" gets an impressive
130,000 raw webhits:

After the conclusion of proceedings one juror was heard to say "Every
once in while you get the chance to do the right thing. We did it in
there today.
www.indymedia.ie/article/77477

Every once in while, a person will do something obvious and direct
that is no more than it appears to be.
www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/s/stevenbrus205318.html

How about that we would meet for lunch once in while, ...
wyona.com/pipermail/phoenix/2006-August/000406.html

and "once and while" gets 51,900:

Technology comes in handy once and while...
signsneversleep.blogspot.com/2004/08/technology-comes-in-handy-once-
and.html

Everyone screws up once and while. F
www.theamsterdam.us:10000/index.php?p=41

... near as thin as girls like the olsen twins. they don't eat
"hamburgers every once and while". they have to hardly eat anything
to look like that!
www.celebrities-eating.com/2006/05/ashley-olsen.html

oi!  it then occurred to me to check "once and the while" (combining
in >> and and a >> the), and yes, there are a few occurrences:

There are natives that have evolved to live in damp soils such as
Culver's root, Mallows, etc., I water those once and the while and
plant them closest to ...
forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/prairie/msg10131830965.html?3

Just keep your ears clean and rinse off your tips every once and the
while and you will have no problems whatsoever...
forums.macrumors.com/archive/index.php/t-144630.html

If Jewish invasion and occupation affords an extra loaf once and the
while at cost of my children getting murdered by Israeli troops and
Jewish degradation ...
www.jewishtribalreview.org/johnson2.htm



any other candidates for a >> the?  (or the reverse).  these aren't
things you can search for directly.  you have to think of a larger
idiom and then search on it.

oh dear, a fair number (a few hundred) of "once in the blue moon"
hits, like this one:

Question 1: How often do you feel your partner doesn't really know
who you are? Most of the time. Sometimes. Once in the blue moon. Never.
www.allthetests.com/redirect.php3?siteid=12532

so no doubt there are a lot more.

arnold (zwicky at csli.stanford.edu)

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