follow suite >> follow suit

[ronbutters at AOL.COM]

Could the confusion be related to the prescriptions and prescriptions concerning "bedroom suites." Etc.?

------Original Message------
From: James Harbeck
Sender: American Dialect Society
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
ReplyTo: American Dialect Society
Sent: Oct 14, 2007 7:54 PM
Subject: Re: [ADS-L] follow suite >> follow suit

>i see no evidence that "suit of cards" is not the standard spelling
>(and pronunciation).  "follow suit" is surely the ordinary card-
>playing-based idiom.  (google has millions vs. tens of thousands.)

You're right, of course. Somehow I learned that one wrong as a child
and have lacked opportunities for correction! Not eggcorn but
eggface, as it turns out.

>  > -- which, however, could
>>  make _it_ an eggcorn.
>>
>>  I was surprised not to find it in the archives in the Eggcorn forum.
>>  I can't imagine this one is all that new.
>
>this looks like a reverse eggcorn, in which original and reshaped
>variant change places (at least in the mind of certain users).

Yes, I think that's fair. One less user now, though.

James Harbeck.

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