[Ads-l] "Might as well," re-analyzed; dialect clash

Ben Zimmer bgzimmer at GMAIL.COM
Mon Nov 3 02:27:21 UTC 2014


On Sun, Nov 2, 2014 at 8:53 PM, Wilson Gray wrote:
>
> A post to a Web page:
>
> "The show _minus well_ be called something different for every episode."
>
> Since this is from the site, "Bl[ack-]Asian Narrative," I assume
>
> m[aI]t [@s] well > m[~a~I]t [@s] well > m[~a~In] [@s] well > [m~a~In at s]
> well,
>
> which is spelled "_minus_ well."

An early entry in the Eggcorn Database:

http://eggcorns.lascribe.net/english/129/minus/

The Twitter account "The Minus Well" retweets all sorts of odd
reinterpretations of "might as well":

https://twitter.com/theminuswell

--bgz

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

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org



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