"wrecked my brain" possible eggcorn?

Chris Waigl chris at LASCRIBE.NET
Sun Nov 30 01:00:51 UTC 2008


On 30 Nov 2008, at 00:51, Herb Stahlke wrote:
>
>
> A member of the ATEG list posted the following today:
>
> I have wrecked my brain but have not yet thought of a valid reason why
> 'had' should appear other than in the three circumstances mentioned.
>
> I googled "I wrecked my brain" and got 317 hits, most of which clearly
> meant "wracked my brain."  Googling "wrecked my brain" gets 1180, many
> of which could be using "wreck" in its usual sense of "destroyed,"
> e.g. "Also I think School has TOTALLY WRECKED my brain! I can't do
> anything right."
>
> Possible eggcorn?

This one is on (I'm sure several people's) lists, and has shown up
before. It's part of a bigger eggcornish cluster, though (wrack/rack/
wreck and more) that is a bit harder to untangle.

Cheers,

Chris Waigl

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