"coach potato" another possible eggcorn?

Herb Stahlke hfwstahlke at GMAIL.COM
Sun Nov 30 02:59:36 UTC 2008


In the latest Newsweek, Sharon Begley writes in her "On Science" column:

You measure the blood pressure, heart rate, weight, and other aspects
of cardiovascular health of thousands of coach potatoes year after
year.

Googling "coach potato" gets about 39.7k hits.  When you refine the
search to eliminate the cartoon series, the bus tour company,
communications technologies, and other false matches, the number drops
to about 14.6k, many of which clearly mean "couch potato."  "Coach
potato' has an Urban Dictionary definition, "coach potato is used to
describe someone who sits on the coach all day and does nothing
(common knowledge)."  WikiAnswers has a question on the source of
"coach potato" but no comments have been submitted.

Herb

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org



More information about the Ads-l mailing list