"ridden with"

[Arnold M. Zwicky]

in following up a report (from Phil Jensen) of the eggcorn "ridden
with" >> "riven with", i discovered that OED2 doesn't have a subentry
for "ridden with" 'afflicted by, full of', though there are ca.
414,000 google webhits for "ridden with" (only a few involving actual
riding).  just from the first two pages, it appears that things or
people can be ridden with: loopholes, lies, errors, typos, rumors,
skin problems, tooth decay, disease, potholes, and inaccuracies.  oi.

what OED2 does have is the etymology ("ridden" the past participle of
"ride") and the sense development:

   that has been ridden upon

   oppressed, taken advantage of

   2nd element in compounds like "priest-ridden"

from the second and third, the way would be clear for an extension to
the 'afflicted by, full of' sense (or better, the 'full of
[undesirable elements]' sense).

arnold

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