soft-petal (was: bridle/bridal)

[Chris Waigl]

On 29 May 2009, at 18:01, Laurence Horn wrote:
> At 9:37 AM -0700 5/29/09, Arnold Zwicky wrote:
>> On May 28, 2009, at 8:25 PM, Benjamin Zimmer wrote:
>>>
>>> The ECDB has "backpeddle" and "soft-peddle":
>>>
>>> http://eggcorns.lascribe.net/english/175/backpeddle/
>>> http://eggcorns.lascribe.net/english/455/soft-peddle/
>>>
>>> These should probably be combined into one entry with other examples
>>> of "pedal" -> "peddle".
>>
>> each of these entries has a rationale for "peddle" in it.
>
> As does "soft-petal" (since they are, after all).  I first
> encountered this in a student paper and then began using it in
> problem sets.  I see it's not in the ECDB.
>
> The first page of "soft-petalled" on google is dominated by
> non-eggcorns (soft-petalled flowers, roses, blooms and such), but
> eventually the eggcornish occurrences pop up, and it shows up in
> other verb forms as well:
>
> =======================
> Indeed it's not absent from the scriptures but it's tended to be soft
> petalled in recent years with this idea of a God out there...
>
> I told her that I don't want to be around him anymore, but I
> soft-petaled the truth, I know.
>
> It tells us that we do not need to soft-petal the demands of Christ
> in order to gain Him disciples.
>
> Also, once a buyer has decided they like a home, it is probably much
> easier to soft-petal the defects the inspectors flag.
>
> If you provoke another, you'll decide to soft-petal the situation.
> [from horoscope]
>
> Given this soft-petalling and your reluctance to answer in the first
> place, I'm sniffing some Osama sympathy here.
>
> If the media is starting to admit it, then they're recognizing a
> problem and are on their way to stopping their soft-petalling these
> acts of violence
> =====================
>
> There are puns, to be sure ("No soft-petaling: Daisy [Fuentes] has
> strong opinions", news story header), but the examples above are
> apparently quite sincere, and entirely flower-unrelated.  Of course
> they could be simple misspellings, but I'd wager most of the writers
> tacitly take the verb to allude metaphorically to the softness of
> petals (rather than the dampening effect of the musical foot-lever).
>

Yes, the pedal/petal/peddle complex needs some unified ECDB treatment,
but it's all a bit of a mess. Do people who write "petal" think of the
things on flowers? Those who write "peddle" of selling? There are
loads of Ghits for "rose peddles" and "rose pedals", and I see no
eggcornish explanation for these. So at the very least there's a
superposition of two effects: eggcornish reshapings, and plain old
spelling insecurity/variance.

Cheers,

Chris Waigl

--
Chris Waigl -- http://chryss.eu -- http://eggcorns.lascribe.net
twitter: chrys -- friendfeed: chryss

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org