"bald case" -- an eggcorn?

[Baker, John]

        I'd go with the "lacking adornment or amplification" meaning of
"bald," as in a bald statement or assertion.


John Baker


-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf
Of Joel S. Berson
Sent: Monday, July 13, 2009 4:45 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: "bald case" -- an eggcorn?

In _White Over Black_ (Univ. of N.C. Press, 1968), page 218, Winthrop D.
Jordan wrote:

"But to throw man into the same 'Order' with the 'SIMIA' [simian; the
reference is to Linnaeus] was to make a bald case for regarding man as
subject to the same kind of scrutiny as other animals."

"Bald case" -- eggcorn for "bold case": or intentional allusion to -- or
confusion with "naked, bare"; or simply a typographical error?

Joel

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