dragged/dredged eggcorn?

[Arnold Zwicky]

On Jul 17, 2009, at 11:36 PM, Victor wrote:

> I came across an article on college hacks that presented the
> following line:
>
>>> After a couple of days of drama - allegedly _the river was even
> dragged_ - the Harvard Chief of Police received a tip that he should
> show up on a certain road at a certain time and follow a certain car.
> http://www.neatorama.com/2009/07/16/seven-college-pranks/
>
> ... What jumped at me, however, is the use of "dragged the river". It
> sounded, at best, eggcornish. It did not take a lot of digging to find
> more examples.

no surprise, since this is a perfectly ordinary use of "drag".  NOAD2:

   drag [trans.] search the bottom of (a river, lake, or the sea) with
grapnels or nets

note: the notion of searching is crucial here.

> ... I thought that perhaps there is just parallel drag/dredge use in
> this
> context and I didn't pay sufficient attention to the phrase in the
> past
> to have any real basis for solid judgment. I also happen to be short
> on
> dictionaries. But here are a few examples of "dredging"...

the first of these is a perfectly ordinary use of "dredge".  NOAD2
again:

   dredge [trans.] clear out the bed of (a harbor, river, or other
area of water) by scooping out mud, weeds, and rubbish with a dredge
   bring up or clear (something) from a river, harbor, or other area
with a dredge

here the use of a dredging apparatus, for removing stuff, is the
crucial element.  but the second gloss for "dredge" allows for some
overlap in its usage with "drag", since you can search for things
using a dredging apparatus rather than a grapnel or net.  as in the
next quote:

> From NYT 13 July 1887--recovering bodies from the capsized yacht
> Mystery:
>>> Having ascertained the spot where Mystery upset, they began
>>> _dredging
> the channel_ carefully, continuing over a quarter of a mile in each
> direction. The men who _dredged for the bodies_ yesterday reported
> that
> the water was 35 feet deep at the place the yacht overturned, thus
> exploding the theory that the centerboard of the Mystery had struck
> bottom.

some of the others look like they might have "dredge" where dragging
was involved (though it''s hard to tell) -- e.g.:

> From NYT 17 January 1906--"THREE DROWNED TRYING TO FIND DEAD WOMAN;
> Were Dredging for Her Body When Their Skiff Overturned. RESCUERS JUST
> TOO LATE":
>

then we get to this one:

> ... A "Paul Engle" quotation:
>
>>> "Writing is like this -- you dredge for the poem's meaning the way
> _police dredge for a body_."
> http://www.people.ubr.com/authors/by-first-name/p/paul-engle/paul-engle-quotes/writing-is-like-this.aspx

"drag" strikes me as impossible in this context.  the image is of
pulling up everything and then searching in it for what you're looking
for.

> ... There is little doubt in my mind that the meaning of "dredge"
> and "drag"
> in these examples is identical.

there is quite a bit of doubt in my mind.  but the verbs are similar
in meaning, and could both be used in some contexts.  in addition, a
dredge can work by scooping stuff up in the apparatus, or (more
commonly) by dragging the apparatus along the bed, so there is a
semantic connection.  (there might also be an etymological connection,
though the OED isn't entirely sure about this.  the verb "drag" and
the noun and verb "dredge", despite their germanic sound, are
apparently not attested before the 15th century.)

their syntax is somewhat different.  "drag" occurs in the frame
   drag AREA OF WATER (for SOMETHING SOUGHT)
and "dredge" in the frame
   dredge STUFF (from AREA OF WATER)
but "dredge" can also occur in the first frame; it's more versatile
syntactically.  (early uses of "dredge" include a number in which the
STUFF in question is oysters, but it quickly extends to other things).

arnold

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