Eggcorn: "cudboard"

[Arnold Zwicky]

On Aug 11, 2009, at 8:30 AM, Doug Harris wrote:

> Google reports 3000+ hits, but many of those are not cudboard
> but CUD Board, sometimes referring to the Canadian University
> of Dubai (of all things!).

i don't get anywhere near that number of hits, but there certainly are
some out there.

but there a great many more hits for the ear-spelling "cuboard", and a
fair number for the ear-spelling "cubboard".

i'm having trouble seeing "cudboard" as an actual eggcorn (what could
cuds have to do with cupboards?).  maybe it's a demi-eggcorn: the
writer realized that a consonant letter was needed to condition the
lax vowel in the first syllable, and then cast about for existing one-
syllable words with that vowel; "cub" would be the obvious choice, but
"cud" is also possible (and [db] can be simplified to [b]).  the
choice of "cub" or "cud" doesn't contribute any semantics, but at
least the spelling has recognizable parts.

arnold

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