eggcorn: "raise cackles"

Benjamin Zimmer bgzimmer at BABEL.LING.UPENN.EDU
Thu Jun 4 17:40:12 UTC 2009


On Thu, Jun 4, 2009 at 1:22 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu> wrote:
>
> And the next step is to process these "cackles" as an all-purpose
> emotive response gauge.  We can already attest "warm the cackles (of
> one's heart)":
[snip]

Ah, that would help explain this example:

>>---
>>http://www.quickstopentertainment.com/2005/01/28/trailer-park-happy-birthday-to-me/
>>It's about Deep Throat so you can be sure it's, at the very least,
>>going to raise some cackles in the hearts of bible belters somewhere
>>in this great land.
>>---

So that's both an idiom blend and a lexical blend ("hackles" +
"cockles" = "cackles").


--Ben Zimmer

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