"feint praise"--eggcorn?

[Jonathan Lighter]

> That there are people who not only think, but also even argue,
otherwise just goes to show you: youneverknow.

Actually you do know.

Whether you like it or not.

JL

On Sat, Jul 14, 2012 at 4:24 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: "feint praise"--eggcorn?
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On Sat, Jul 14, 2012 at 7:45 AM, Stephen Goranson <goranson at duke.edu>
> wrote:
> > "Rowan … [and I] have only one thing in common: we wrote poetry."
>
> FWIW, IME, there is only a single spelling that has ever been used in
> this cliche:
>
> "damn with _faint_ praise"
>
> That there are people who not only think, but also even argue,
> otherwise just goes to show you: youneverknow.
>
> Also FWIW, in my ideogrammar, "_feint_ praise" is not possible. "Fake
> left" and "fake praise"? Okay. "Feint left" and "feint praise"? Nokay.
> So, I'm totally down with arnold's analysis of it as a typo.
>
> "what semantics would _feint_ contribute to the expression?"
>
> Or even *could*, IMO!
>
> I'm really surprised that there exist other native-speakers who not
> only accept _feint_ in this environment, but who also have "reasoned"
> etymological arguments for doing so. But, that this is the case I find
> interesting.
>
> BTW, arnold, was this there, in your day? In one of the Bld. 20
> offices, there was posted a Sunday-funnies strip of Peanuts whose
> first panel shows Lucy asking Charlie some such question as, "Charlie
> Brown, why is your face such a "*face*" face?" In the second panel,
> Charlie commences to rap - in the '60's sense - in reply:
>
> "||| || |||| ||| | ||||| ||| |||||| …"
>
> through most of the remaining panels. In the second-last panel, Lucy
> suddenly punches Charlie out. In the last panel, she breaks the fourth
> wall and says,
>
> "I had to hit him quick! He was starting to make sense!"
>
> That's kinda the way that the arguments for _feigned_  - but not for
> _feint_ - strike me. If I hadn't already decided not to accept any, I
> might be persuaded.
>
> --
> -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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