Battling with English - part 5 (HPR Show 3608)

Confused homophones; misunderstanding words from other countries; Eggcorns

Dave Morriss

Table of Contents

Overview

This time I have three main subjects to discuss, all of them dealing with misunderstandings of words:

  • Mistakes made with homophones, one group of examples
    • The definition gets a little technical, see the Wikipedia description.
  • Misunderstandings of words from other languages
    • Pundit
  • Looking at Eggcorns (a name chosen from a misspelling of acorn)
    • Wikipedia: an alteration of a phrase through the mishearing or reinterpretation of one or more of its elements

Misunderstanding homophones

As we have seen, homophones are usually words that have different spellings but sound the same. One of the most often quoted groups of such words are reign, rein and rain, but there are many others. We will also look at passed and past as well as poring and pouring in a later show.

Here are some definitions (I have limited the meanings for the sake of brevity but the links here and below give access to more information if required):

Reign, Rein and Rain

reign
Noun
meaning 1: a period of time when a royal person rules a country
example: “under the reign of the Stuart kings”

meaning 2: a period of time when a person, feeling or quality is important
example: “his successful reign as manager of the team”

Verb
meaning 1: to rule a country, or to have power or control
example: “in England the sovereign reigns but does not rule”

rein
Noun
meaning 1: a strap attached to the bridle of a horse or other animal to control their movement
meaning 2: a means of restraining or checking
Verb
meaning 1: to restrain or control

rain
Noun
meaning 1: water falling to earth in drops
Verb
meaning 1: to fall in drops of water from the clouds

Correct usage Incorrect usage Comment
rein in reign in To rein in is to slow something down or get it under control. It’s related to horse riding. So reign in 👎 is incorrect.
free rein free reign The meaning of free rein to give complete freedom or to give full control. It’s again related to horse riding. So free reign 👎 is incorrect.
Anarchy reigns supreme Anarchy reins supreme The meaning is that anarchy controls everything; there is nothing but anarchy but the incorrect version uses reins 👎.

Words from other languages

English, in common with many (or maybe all) languages, has absorbed words from other languages. We will look at one case in this episode, with some common errors probably caused by a misunderstanding of the word.

Pundit

See the definition according to Wikipedia:

A pundit is a person who offers to mass media opinion or commentary on a particular subject area (most typically politics, the social sciences, technology or sport).

pundit
Noun
meaning 1: a learned person; an expert or authority
meaning 2: a person who makes comments or judgments in an authoritative manner

This word originates from the Hindi term pandit, meaning a learned man. It was brought into English from India, maybe as long ago as the 1600s.

In my younger days it was common to hear the then Prime Minister of the Republic of India, Jawaharlal Nehru, being referred to as Pandit Nehru on news programs and elsewhere.

Original Incorrect Comment
pundit pundant
pundint 		Both are wrong: pundant 👎, pundint 👎

I was surprised to hear someone I follow on YouTube incorrectly saying ‘pundant’ within the past week. This error seems to be spreading for some reason.

Looking at Eggcorns

The name for this linguistic phenomenon was coined by Professor Geoffrey Pullum in 2003. It came from a discussion of a case where the phrase egg corn had been used instead of acorn.

The term is used to describe cases where someone uses analogy and logic to make sense of an expression which uses a term which is not meaningful to them. Eggcorns are of interest to linguists since they show language evolving, and indicate possible reasons why a change has occurred.

For example, the expression in one fell swoop might be replaced by in one foul swoop because fell is not much used in common parlance and foul appears to replace the meaning.

Here are a few eggcorns taken from the Eggcorn Database mentioned below.

Eggcorn Original Comment
damp squid damp squib A firework (squib) which has become wet and fails to go off. Used to describe something that doesn’t work properly or fails to meet expectations.
for all intensive purposes (for|to) all intents and purposes For every functional purpose; in every practical sense; in every important respect. The original expression comes from English law in the 1500’s.
old timer’s disease Alzheimer’s disease A neurodegenerative disease that is commonest in people over 65 years of age. The eggcorn is wrong, but almost makes sense.
with baited breath with bated breath Usually means to wait with anticipation or excitement. Bated means restrained and is related to abated. The image is of one holding one’s breath in excitement.

If this subject interests you, have a look at the Eggcorn Database and Eggcorn Forum in the Links section below.