Sanford eggcorn: "world wind (tour)"

[Laurence Horn]

At 11:34 AM -0400 6/25/09, Benjamin Zimmer wrote:
>On Thu, Jun 25, 2009 at 11:21 AM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:
>>
>>  At 6/25/2009 10:17 AM, Benjamin Zimmer wrote:
>>  >
>>  >I suppose you could think of "world wind" as a blend of "world wide"
>>  >and "whirlwind." Or, since it modifies "tour," there could be
>>  >influence from "world tour" (to describe concert tours and the like).
>>
>>  Are eggcorns and blends mutually exclusive?
>
>Well, on the ECDB, I tend to stick blends in the "not an eggcorn" or
>"questionable" categories. Examples include lexical blends like
>"irregardless" (prob. a blend of "irrespective" and "regardless")

Do we know this?  "-less" suffixed adjectives with pleonastic
negative prefixes like "undoubtless", "unhelpless", "unguiltless",
"unshameless", "unwitless" were rampant in the 16th and 17th
centuries, as the OED notes (un-1, 5a), and I wouldn't think that it
makes sense to analyze each of them as a blend.  Of course
"irregardless" only goes back to 1912, according to the OED (I
suspect it was around earlier, but can't prove it), but the process
it illustrates is also found elsewhere, e.g. in modern German
_unzweifellos_ lit. 'undoubtless', and relates to other cases of
pleonastic lexical negation that don't clearly involve blends.

LH

>  and
>idiom blends like "on a whim and a prayer" (prob. a blend of "on a
>whim" and "on a wing and a prayer"). But the boundaries aren't always
>so clear. Eggcorns can be blend-y, and vice versa.
>
>
>--Ben Zimmer
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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