caught in the wild--random finds

[Wilson Gray]

If it's all right to say simply, "X is fraught," period, why bother
with the others?

"Wrought" in place of "fraught"? I've never seen that one before. With
luck, I'll never see it again.

Glamazon? It's been around since at least WWII, in the days before
thin became in. And wasn't it the translator who turned whatever
Portuguese word that Mrs. Brady wrote into English "witnessing"?

I'm dealing with yet another migraine headache, so I cop to the
possibility that I may have entirely missed the point of the post. In
that case, please accept my apaologies.

-Wilson

On Tue, Mar 9, 2010 at 9:42 AM, victor steinbok <aardvark66 at gmail.com> wrote:
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       victor steinbok <aardvark66 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      caught in the wild--random finds
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> for additions to your collections (all from the Boston Herald):
>
> 1) "#walshgate"/"catch the snafu"/"technical
> goof"/"cyber-intrigue"--yet another "snafu" in the wild, as well as
> another -gate and "cyber-intrigue", and a "cute" finish (no doubt soon
> to be attributed to Mark Twain):
>
>> Some cynics think the gaffe that now has its own Twitter page, “#walshgate,” happened by accident on purpose. ... Walsh appeared to catch the snafu hours later, explaining in another tweet: “Oops. You caught me doing my job.” ... “It was unquestionably a technical goof on my part,” Walsh told the Herald. “You know, live and learn.” ... Walsh’s cryptic blurb prompted a flurry of local cyber-intrigue about the identity of the intended recipient. ... As for those who believe his posting was nothing more than a quick-fingered trick, Walsh said, “Anybody who wants to speculate that I’m smart, I’d be very foolish to try to dissuade them.”
>
> http://www.bostonherald.com/news/politics/view/20100308was_john_walshs_post_a_trick_or_tweet/srvc=home&position=also
>
> 2) "player owner"--I don't even know what that means. Well, no--I
> suppose, I do. Insert [who(m)] after "player". Also--creative use of
> commas--the last line below is almost Shakespearean, thanks to yet
> another idiotic use of style rules:
>
>> It all happened on the first day of free agency. The player owner Robert Kraft had called the team’s “first priority” was shown to be exactly that. ... The team that Randy Moss said “don’t pay,” did. The team with the rap for allowing its best players to walk, didn’t. ... Twice, a deal nearly was struck.
>
> http://www.bostonherald.com/sports/football/patriots/view/20100305vince_wilfork_signs_a_contract_extension/
>
> 3) "via Twitter/via text"--nothing really new, but shows just how
> pervasive "via" has become:
>
>> But Bodden’s agent, Alvin Keels, disputed both reports via Twitter and via text to the Herald.
>
> http://www.bostonherald.com/sports/football/patriots/view.bg?articleid=1238325
>
> 4) "glamazon"/"witnessing"/"rhapsodize"--was almost ready to hit Send
> when I spotted this one. I suppose, "witnessing" is not too unusual,
> given the "non-native speaker" status:
>
>> The Brazilian glamazon celebrated International Women’s Day yesterday with a tribute to motherhood and her own mother, who, she said, is “my hero.” “I grew up witnessing my mother always trying her best at doing all she could for the six of us girls,” Mrs. Brady wrote in Portuguese in a blog post titled “Gift of Life.” ... Gi went on to rhapsodize about the birth of her 3-month old son as “the most intense and life-changing experience of my life.”
>
> http://www.bostonherald.com/track/inside_track/view/20100309buyers_beware_of_tom_brady__gisele_bundchens_back_bay_digs/
>
> 5) Is "fraught/wrought with danger/peril" an eggcorn? All raw counts
> on EXACT searches, the firs eight from suggestions by Google. In all
> cases but "with emotion" the suggested phrase was "fraught with X"
> irrespectively of which verb was typed in first (apparently Google
> just picks the most popular combination). (M=million, G=thousand --
> perhaps it should be the opposite? or use Mega and Kilo, as in
> Kiloghits and Megaghits?)
>
> ... with danger
> 3.64M/233G
>
> ... with peril
> 4.62M/136G
>
> ... with errors*
> 156G/72.6G
>
> ... with emotion**
> 279G/312G
>
> ... with difficulty
> 1.48M/278G
>
> ... with difficulties
> 4.66M/105G
>
> ... with problems
> 1.52M/52G
>
> ... with portent
> 15.6G/3
>
> ... with nonsense
> 41.5G/5
>
> ... with mistakes
> 152G/15.9G
>
> ... with pleasure*
> 481G/317G
>
> ... with disaster*
> 144G/23.3G
>
> ... with risk
> 748G/53.2G
>
> ... with the unexpected
> 446G/1
>
> ... with experience
> 366G/5
>
> ... with the loss [of/to/by]***
> 2.66M/0
>
> ... with waste
> 69.4G/35G*
>
> ... with abuse*
> 447G/197G
>
> ... with fraud*
> 118G/70.4G
>
> Note the significantly closer numbers in * and a reversal in **.
>
> There are actually only 31 hits under "fraught with the loss" which
> makes me wonder about the rest of the numbers.
>
> VS-)
>
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>



--
-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

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