feeble position

Chris Waigl chris at LASCRIBE.NET
Mon Aug 17 01:19:59 UTC 2009


On 17 Aug 2009, at 01:46, Laurence Horn wrote:

> And at least some of the many hits for "(in a) futile position" seem
> to be eggcornish substitutions:
>
> David of course slouched in a futile position and whimpered like a
> little cowardly boy.
>
> His owner, Jamie Gable, rushed to see what was the matter, and upon
> noticing that his two hind legs limply crossed each other in a futile
> position

With Michael Covarrubias's "feudal", my doubt-level rises quite a bit
-- what about the meaning of "feudal" would lend sense to "feudal
position"? Maybe the writer just didn't know how to spell "fetal" (but
aimed for that word".

"Futile" is more convincing, though I'd have to look at it further.

I'll wait if this thread washes up more stuff and may add a note to
the entry.

Chris

--
Chris Waigl -- http://chryss.eu -- http://eggcorns.lascribe.net
twitter: chrys -- friendfeed: chryss

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