[Ads-l] Eggcorn: Stable/Staple

[Baker, John]

Here's a new-to-me eggcorn:  stable, where staple normally would be used.  >From https://satwcomic.com/motherfu-king-nature:

"Thanks to climate change not only have the giant wasp species already living in Scandinavia started spreading but giant wasps from other parts of the world have started moving in.  I'll never forget a few summers ago when I was taking the trash out. The dumpsters were covered in wasps but I thought "I'll be quick. Don't disrupt them and leave" when a wasp the size of a finger flew past my head! Since then they've been a stable of my summers and I hate it."

Apparently the writer meant "staple," something having widespread and constant use.  She apparently assumed that there is a noun form of the adjective "stable," not changing or fluctuating.  The writer is not a native speaker of English.


John Baker





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