"bone marror"

[Laurence Horn]

Not exactly an eggcorn, but more than a typo.  I came across a
reference to "bone marror" in a posting on my cancer support list,
and noting that "r" and "w" keys are relatively close but not
adjacent on the keyboard wondered if it could be a reanalysis.  Sure
enough, there are over 680 raw g-hits for "bone marror", as in "bone
marror transplant", "bone marror donor" (progressive assimilation
involved here?) and even, with liaison, "bone marror and onion soup".
I suspect most of these are from non-rhotic speakers, where "marror"
and "marrow" would be almost homophones (modulo the pronunciation of
the last vowel, but cf. our earlier threads on "high yeller",
"feller", and such).

Without the bone, many of the hits for "marror" involve a geminate
version of what's usually rendered as "maror", the bitter herb on the
seder plate at Passover.  There's often a bone on the same plate, but
I doubt anyone associates that shank bone with a "marror bone", for
which there are in any case virtually no hits.

LH

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