Eggcorn

[Wilson Gray]

Needless to say, anyone who learned to read in the 'Forties *ought* to
be aware of the original idiom. And I suppose that the speaker *could*
have pictured homeless children running about the abandoned building
like a horse given free rein, as opposed to merely wandering randomly
about the building in a manner like unto that of free-range chickens.
But it's hard to tell, not having the speaker available for
questioning on this point.

I'm just happy that the kids didn't take the bit between their teeth!

-Wilson

On Sat, Jul 4, 2009 at 7:46 AM, Arnold Zwicky<zwicky at stanford.edu> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender: Â  Â  Â  American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster: Â  Â  Â  Arnold Zwicky <zwicky at STANFORD.EDU>
> Subject: Â  Â  Â Re: Eggcorn
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On Jul 3, 2009, at 7:47 PM, Wilson Gray wrote:
>
>> From a discussion of homeless children being allowed to wander:about
>> in abandoned buildings:
>>
>> "... the only building in the city that allows _free rein_ to
>> homeless kids ..."
>>
>>
>> I'm *really* uncertain about this one. It seems to me that this
>> sorta-kinda-maybe calls for "... allows free _range_," since the kids
>> are *wandering about* within the building, but, WTF, I wouldn't bet
>> money on it.
>
> "free rein" is the original idiom, but (as Chris Waigl said on the
> ecdb):
>
> Â  As horses and carriages have become rare as a means of transport,
> the metaphor controlling or restricting their movement with the help of
> reins has lost its transparency.
> Â  http://eggcorns.lascribe.net/english/34/reign/
>
> so "rein" has been replaced by items that make more sense to people,
> in particular "reign" and "range", the latter also in the ecdb:
>
> Â  http://eggcorns.lascribe.net/english/362/range/
>
> searching the ecdm for "rein" will get you both of these entries.
>
> arnold
>
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--
-Wilson
–––
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-----
-Mark Twain

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