eggcorn "signal out"

[Wilson Gray]

Back in the 'Forties and 'Fiftites, "Single" was a very common
replacement for "signal." The tables have turned.

-Wilson
–––
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-----
-Mark Twain





On Sun, May 3, 2009 at 11:52 AM, Gordon, Matthew J.
<GordonMJ at missouri.edu> wrote:
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> Sender: Â  Â  Â  American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster: Â  Â  Â  "Gordon, Matthew J." <GordonMJ at MISSOURI.EDU>
> Subject: Â  Â  Â eggcorn "signal out"
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On a podcast I heard "signal s.o. out" which I took to be an eggcorn for  "single s.o. out." A quick google search turns up other examples:
>
> "To signal him out is a little unfair, he was the only TV stock pundit (that I know of) that actually told people to get out!"
> http://forum.newshounds.us/viewtopic.php?t=26854&highlight=&sid=8e420f4f98c15656f7e1e31fd40555ce
>
> "we "fans" seem to signal him out as a scapegoat"
> http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/606/A49747206
>
>
> Also some older examples in print (from Google Books):
>
> "bring the name of Lincoln into such national prominence as to signal him out as one of the ablest leaders of the new Republican party" from History of the United States, William Davidson 1902.
>
> "His power and wealth, too, seemed to signal him out above all others for the highest position in the land" from A History of Germany in the Middle Ages, Ernest Flagg Henderson, 1894.
>
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