Eggcorn?
Arnold M. Zwicky
zwicky at CSLI.STANFORD.EDU
Sat Jun 7 15:25:59 UTC 2008
On Jun 6, 2008, at 6:45 AM, Doug Harris wrote:
> A subject line from a just-received e-mail:
>
> EMPTY Ink Cartridges Needed (All kinds excepted)
>
>
> MAYBE simply a spelling error. But the meaning
> certainly is, um, inked out. And reversed.
MWDEU on accept/except: "Nearly every handbook published between 1917
and the present carries a warning against confusing _accept_ and
_except_.
... [citation] Still excepting bookings for 1984 --advt., _Morgan
Horse_, December 1983
"This confusion must be due entirely to similarity of sound, for the
meanings of the two verbs are so dissimilar as to obviate confusion on
that score."
arnold
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