Fwd: a well-traveled eggcorn ("Roaming Catholic")

[Laurence Horn]

Before someone else points it out, I was intending to add that the
problem with detecting this particular eggcorn is that many speakers
who might be *thinking* "roaming Catholic" would be likely to
*pronounce* it as homonymously with "Roman Catholic", in which case
there would be no way short of mind-reading to notice the reanalysis
in spoken form.

LH

>Date: Thu, 21 Oct 2010 10:55:29 -0400
>To: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>From: Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>
>Subject: a well-traveled eggcorn ("Roaming Catholic")
>
>>From Dorothy L. Sayers, _An Unnatural Death_ (1927):
>
>=================
>"But indeed, sir," she added, "if you was quick, you might find her
>up at the church. She often drops in there to say her prayers like.
>Not a respectful way to approach a place of worship to my mind, do
>you think so yourself, sir? Popping in and out on a week-day, the
>same as if it was a friend's house. And coming home from Communion
>as cheerful as anything and ready to laugh and make jokes. I don't
>see as how we was meant to make an ordinary thing of religion that
>way- so disrespectful and nothing uplifting to the 'art about it.
>But there! we all 'as our failings, and Miss Climpson is a nice lady
>and that I must say, even if she is a Roaming Catholic or next door
>to one."
>
>Lord Peter thought that Roaming Catholic was rather an appropriate
>name for the more ultramontane section of the High Church party. At
>the moment, however, he felt he could not afford time for religious
>discussion, and set off for the church in quest of Miss Climpson.
>==================
>
>Googling "Roaming Catholic" picks up a couple of relevant hits (cf.
>e.g.
>http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090511110254AAqJ4d9)
>buried in an avalanche of puns (cf. the Roamin' Catholic Choir) and
>jokes. According to various sites, Jackie Gleason described himself
>as one.  But for Mrs. Budge, the first speaker in the (admittedly
>fictitious) exchange above, it's clearly an eggcorn, and FWIW it's
>not in the database.  (Maybe too rare?)
>
>LH

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