Yolking on the campaign trail

[Laurence Horn]

On Sep 21, 2012, at 9:23 AM, Joel S. Berson wrote:

> Today the NY Times managed to print (in its NE Edition) the following
> in its report of the Brown--Warren Massachusetts senatorial debate:
> 
> "On the campaign trail, Ms. Warren often tries to yolk Mr. Brown to
> Mr. Romney and Representative Paul D. Ryan, the vice-presidential candidate."
> 
> I wish I could make this into an eggcorn, but I'm unable to.  Unless
> the writer was thinking that "yolking" is throwing rotten eggs.  Or
> that "Professor" Warren, as "Senator" Brown kept calling her, had
> developed a throat problem on the dusty campaign trail and was
> hiccupping, or coughing like a sheep.  ("yolk, v.")
> 
> Regretfully, probably only a fingerfehler -- mistyping by doubling
> down on two adjacent keyboard characters.
> 
Or equally likely, a simple misspelling, assimilating the less common "yoke" to the more common "yolk" (assuming the writer, like me, pronounces the two alike, and perhaps figures the verb is some sort of lost metaphor from the noun).  Speaking of "doubling down", here's Naomi Wolf, from yesterday's Times:

“This is a time in which everybody is on the verge of a global awakening from a certain kind of torpor,” she said, eyes sparkling. “That’s why there’s this doubling down on the power struggle over the vagina. But this is a moment for women. We are going to have to reclaim the vagina as central to everything.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/20/fashion/naomi-wolf-on-her-new-book-vagina.html

LH
        

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