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

[Galen Buttitta]

I used to think it was "mine as well" myself.

> On Nov 2, 2014, at 20:27, Ben Zimmer <bgzimmer at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
> 
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Ben Zimmer <bgzimmer at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: "Might as well," re-analyzed; dialect clash
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
>> 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/
> 
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> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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