"mano a mano": another turn on the wheel

[Ben Zimmer]

On Thu, Jan 26, 2012 at 9:06 PM, Laurence Horn wrote:
>
> Some of you will recall our discussion a few years back of the
> reanalysis of this expression, although it seems not to have made it
> into the eggcorn database.  We batted around such delights as "mano y
> mano", "mano on mano", and my favorites, "mano-a-womano" and
> "womano-a-womano"*, all eloquently testifying to the shift in how the
> expression tends to be (mis)understood.  (Or, to be nonjudgmental,
> reunderstood.)

I entered "mano-on-mano" into the ECDB in 2005, with discussion of the
reanalysis in the notes:

http://eggcorns.lascribe.net/english/370/mano-on-mano/

--bgz

--
Ben Zimmer
http://benzimmer.com/

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