just for chagrins

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On Fri, Oct 3, 2008 at 11:31 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Fri, Oct 3, 2008 at 8:01 PM, Benjamin Zimmer
<bgzimmer at babel.ling.upenn.edu> wrote:
>>
>> Noted by Mike Pope on Evolving English II:
>> http://evolvingenglish.blogspot.com/2008/09/and-for-chagiggles.html
>>
>> Examples given:
>> "just for chagrins, lets just suppose that everything in this film is
>> embellished"
>> "That might be neat to find out just for chagrins."
>> "Will probably resurrect the F body and try the filter with it (just
>> for chagrins..)"
>>
>> Mike suggests (rightly, I think) that this is a malapropism and not an
eggcorn.
>
> Thanks God! But, just for the fun of it, what word is "chagrins" replacing?

"Grins". HDAS has "for grins" = 'for fun' from 1966, cross-referenced with "for
greens" from 1848.

Nowadays it's often expanded to "for grins and giggles" (hence the title of
Mike's blog post, "...and for chagiggles"). I've never been able to figure out
if "for grins/kicks/laughs/etc. and giggles" is a euphemization of "for shits
and giggles", or if "shits" is a dysphemization.

--Ben Zimmer

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