Eggcorn: *flea market* > *flee market*

[Dave Wilton]

No, it's a calque of the French "marché aux puces."

-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of
Dennis Preston
Sent: Wednesday, March 05, 2008 10:25 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: Eggcorn: *flea market* > *flee market*

Isn't "flea market" an eggcorn to start with?

dInIs



>---------------------- Information from the mail
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>Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>Poster:       Damien Hall <halldj at BABEL.LING.UPENN.EDU>
>Subject:      Eggcorn: *flea market* > *flee market*
>---------------------------------------------------------------------------
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>
>This is a copy of the post I've just made to the Eggcorn Forum:
>
>Spotted in todayís (5 March 2008) _Daily Pennsylvanian_:
>
>ëPrevor spoke about growth and celebrity licensing as well as his humble
>beginnings selling T-shirts in *flee markets*
>during high school. íîWhen we had
>our booths at the *flee market*, we would climb on top of a van and yell
and
>scream to the top of our lungs for people to buy our T-shirts,î Prevor said
as
>he mounted a table in the mid-sized lecture
>hall. During Prevorís undergraduate
>career at Penn, the business broke out of its *flee market* roots into a
>storefront venue inside Houston Hall.í
>
>from Bianca Gonz·lez, ëSteve & Barryís CEO back
>at Penní, _Daily Pennsylvanian_,
>5 March 2008, p4:
>http://media.www.dailypennsylvanian.com/media/storage/paper882/news/2008/03
/05/News/Steve.Barrys.Ceo.Back.At.Penn-3251836.shtml
>
>The semantic connection between _flea market_ and _flee market_ could be
that
>these markets are places that people are hurrying through and making
hurried
>purchases (often true, given their size), or else that vendors have to
compete
>very hard in order to get potential customers to
>buy from them before they flee
>out of reach. This second analysis makes more sense in the context (see in
>particular the second instance above). Either way, an eggcorn, I think.
Itís
>relatively common: about 89,400 ghits.
>
>Reflecting the relative uncommonness of the
>ending _-ea_ in English, this is the
>third eggcorn in the Forum to feature this confusion:
>
>plea bargain > flee bargain:
>http://eggcorns.lascribe.net/forum/viewtopic.php?id=768
>flea powder > flee powder:
>http://eggcorns.lascribe.net/forum/viewtopic.php?id=340
>
>
>Damien Hall
>University of Pennsylvania
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org


--
Dennis R. Preston
University Distinguished Professor
Department of English
Morrill Hall 15-C
Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI 48864 USA

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