[Ads-l] clink = chink

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

The phrase "clink in his armor" appeared in 1953 in an Oregon
newspaper. The word "chink" might start to look like "clink" in a
degraded newsprint image; however, for this citation the word "clink"
is clear, and the letter spacing around "l" supports the belief that
the original word was "clink". (I only looked in the Newspapers.com
database.)

Date: April 17, 1953
Newspaper: The News-Review
Newspaper Location: Roseburg, Oregon
Article: In The Day's News
Article Author: Frank Jenkins
Start Page 1, Quote Page 4, Column 4

[Begin excerpt]
It would be interesting to speculate as to how that particular
Spaniard came to lose his headpiece three centuries and more ago. Did
some Indian conk him despite the protection of his iron pot? Or maybe
plunk him with an arrow whose point found some clink in his armor? Or
did he just weary of the weight and the heat of the thing and chuck it
off to one side and say the heck with it?
[End excerpt]

Garson

On Sat, Oct 24, 2015 at 4:23 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: clink = chink
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Not in the eggcorn database (yet).  If I'm right about the likely =
> unfamiliarity with "chink" and the plausibility of the =
> clink-as-defect-in-armor reconstruction, "clink in the armor" isn't a =
> (mere) malapropism.
>
> LH
>
>> On Oct 24, 2015, at 4:12 PM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM> =
> wrote:
>>=20
>> ISTR "a clink in his armor" from many, many years ago, but can't say =
> when.
>>=20
>> '70s? '80s?
>>=20
>> JL
>>=20
>> On Sat, Oct 24, 2015 at 3:41 PM, Laurence Horn =
> <laurence.horn at yale.edu>
>> wrote:
>>=20
>>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>> -----------------------
>>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
>>> Subject:      Re: clink =3D chink
>>>=20
>>> =
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------=
> -----
>>>=20
>>>> On Oct 24, 2015, at 3:23 PM, Jonathan Lighter =
> <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM> =3D
>>> wrote:
>>>> =3D20
>>>> CNN:
>>>> =3D20
>>>> "Is this a clink in Donald Trump's armor?"
>>>> =3D20
>>>> JL

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