This is almost an eggcorn

[David Bowie]

From:    Charles Doyle <cdoyle at UGA.EDU>

> I wouldn't assume that the two words are "merged"--just that they
> sometimes get confused as to their spelling. In some dialects (like
> mine!), "addict" is pronounced the same as "attic," so it might
> easily be misspelled that way. But no pronunciation-spelling will
> produce "addict" for "attic," since there are no dialects (as far as
> I know) that would normally add a [-t] to the end of "attic." That's
> all I meant. (I'm not discounting other explanations for "addict" in
> place of "attic.")

Gotcha. I just figure that if there's no sound difference between the
two, and people know of both words but don't necessarily know what they
mean, then we might well expect both to end up substituting for the
other here and there.

(I see this in my 6yo's use of know and no, for example.)

--
David Bowie                               University of Central Florida
     Jeanne's Two Laws of Chocolate: If there is no chocolate in the
     house, there is too little; some must be purchased. If there is
     chocolate in the house, there is too much; it must be consumed.

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