things that are not eggcorns

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On 8/9/07, David A. Daniel <dad at pokerwiz.com> wrote:
>
> Can an eggcorn be created on purpose? John D. MacDonald's book, "The Green
> Ripper", one of the Travis McGee series, gets it title from a (fictional)
> child's misunderstanding of the Grim Reaper. The kid lives in fear that the
> Green Ripper will someday come to get him. It may well be that MacDonald
> actually knew of a real-life instance of this and then used it for the story
> but dunno. So: Does an eggcorn have to be an accident in order to an
> eggcorn?

Sounds a bit like the Under Toad in _The World According to Garp_.

http://www.wordspy.com/words/undertoad.asp


--Ben Zimmer

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