persay = per se

[Laurence Horn]

At 10:13 AM -0400 9/8/10, Herb Stahlke wrote:
>One of my graduate Intro to Linguistics students just wrote (online):
>
>...students shouldn't be persay "forced" to learn...
>
>I got 92.9k raw ghits on it, although a fair number represent a
>company by that name.  Even an online legal dictionary has it,
>although in the definition they use the Latin term.  I'm using a slow,
>lame motel computer right now and it won't let me check the Eggcorn
>Database to see if "persay" or "per say" are listed there or in the
>forum.
>
>Herb
>
I'm not sure "persay" would really be an eggcorn (as opposed to a
loss of transparency and respelling by someone unfamiliar with the
Latin).  Does the meaning of "say" really enter into this
reconstruction?  Or is just an orthographic stab in the dark?

LH

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