"Ignoranus" as eggcorn?

Laurence Horn laurence.horn at YALE.EDU
Sat Jul 3 18:45:35 UTC 2010


"ignoranus" is amply exemplified in dictionaries of invented words
(e.g. http://www.unwords.com/unword/ignoranus.html, or WordSpy, or
Urbandictionary, or Wordnik, or the responses to the WashPost Style
Invitational), typically glossed as 'someone who is both ignorant and
an asshole'.  But it arguably originated as, or at least occurs as,
an eggcorn for "ignoramus" as well.  That is, there are those who
simply have "ignoranus" in their lexicon as a word meaning 'dunce',
presumably on the assumption that "anus" is part of the etymology.
(I just encountered someone who was under that impression, but I'm
sure there are others, and the web supports this as well.)

"Ignoranus" (= ignoramus) doesn't appear in the eggcorn database, but
I don't know if it was proposed and rejected for that esteemed status.

LH

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