funny books--was: things that are not eggcorns

[Wilson Gray]

I was in a kind of what-the-hey mood, Margaret, so I figured, What the
hey, I'll just use the form that I grew up using. From time to time,
I've wondered how funny books / funny papers, etc. became comic books
/ funny papers, etc. It just be that way, I guess.

-Wilson

On 8/10/07, Margaret Lee <mlee303 at yahoo.com> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Margaret Lee <mlee303 at YAHOO.COM>
> Subject:      Re: funny books--was:  things that are not eggcorns
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Wilson,
>
>   It's bveen years since I've seen/heard "funny books" used. I grew up with that term but somehow switched over to "comic books."  I know the Sunday comics were  called the "funny papers."  And, of course, not all funny books were funny.
>
>   -Margaret Lee
> Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
>   Around the end of WWII, IIRC, there appeared a funnybook entitled "The
> Grim Reaper." At that time, I was familiar with the word "reaper," but
> not with the word, "grim." So, I decided that "grim" was a mistake for
> "grime." But how would one reap grime? That didn't make sense. After a
> bit more thought, the solution to this puzzle became obvious, The hero
> was "The CRIME Reaper"! He used his scythe to scoff up criminals. So,
> for a long time, i.e. ca. two years. I was under the impression that
> there was a funnybook hero named "The Crime Reaper." Indeed, by
> extension, any representation of the Grim Reaper was interpreted by me
> as being one of the Crime Reaper. I'll leave it to others to decide
> whether this was a real eggcorn.
>
> -Wilson
>
> On 8/9/07, David A. Daniel wrote:
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> > Sender: American Dialect Society
> > Poster: "David A. Daniel"
> > Subject: Re: things that are not eggcorns
> > -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > 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?
> > DAD
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of
> > Arnold M. Zwicky
> > Sent: Thursday, August 09, 2007 12:53 PM
> > To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> > Subject: things that are not eggcorns
> >
> > on Language Log, with mentions of ADS-L and ADS-Lers:
> >
> > AZ, 8/8/07: Pails and flounders:
> > http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/004805.html
> >
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> -----
> -Sam'l Clemens
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--
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-----
                                              -Sam'l Clemens

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