Eggcorn: own goal >> home goal

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On Fri, Feb 13, 2009 at 11:38 AM, Mark Mandel <thnidu at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> I always found "own goal" obscure, not having grown up with sports in which
> the term is used. (NB, Damien's UK "football" is Americans' "soccer".) And I
> can't think of any other uses of the pronominal adjective (what DO you call
> it?) "own" without a possessive, whether in "DET[non-pronom] own N" or any
> other construction. AFAICT, "own goal" is an idiosyncratic construction.

OED3 has this s.v. "own":

---
2. a. Without preceding possessive. Latterly usu. with indefinite
article, or in pl.
In later use chiefly used in relation to terms of kinship, to
distinguish a close blood relationship from some other kind, as _an
own brother_ = a full brother as opposed to a half-brother or
brother-in-law, etc. _own cousin_ n. a first cousin.
---

There's also a separate entry for "own brand" = "A brand applied by a
retailer to products which have been manufactured, packaged, etc.,
specifically to be sold by that retailer; a product which carries such
a brand." And I see that "own share" is in UK financial usage, as in
the book title _Company Acquisition of Own Shares_:
http://books.google.com/books?id=R4aA-Yvw6ysC


--Ben Zimmer

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