Issue No. 23, May 2008
Dear Reader,
April’s issue on eggcorns seems to have struck a cord with readers – or is that struck a chord? Many of you eagerly shared your
favourite (or least favourite) garbled-but-not-quite-nonsensical versions of common expressions.
Here is a second helping of eggcorns to tie you over until the next issue – or is that tide you over?
Elizabeth Cockle
Copywriter and Buzzword Banisher
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In this issue...
- Cracking More Eggcorns
- Buzz Off : No problem
- Parting Words
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Cracking More Eggcorns
- Give it a green light / give it a green line. As you might expect, giving someone a green light means giving them approval
to proceed. While giving someone a green line does suggest laying out the appropriate path to follow, this eggcorn likely arose from a traffic collision between
the original expression and other expressions such as draw the line and toe the line.
- Nip it in the bud / nip it in the butt. Any budding scholar of idiom or horticulture learns that nip it in the bud means to deal
with a small problem before it reaches full bloom. As English professor and author Paul Brian points out,
“The hilariously mistaken nip it in the butt suggests stimulation to action rather than stopping it.” Pre-emptive though the strike may be, the consequences
are outside the scope of this newsletter.
- Home in on / hone in on. To home in on something means to focus attention on it. The expression likely arose when warfare took
to the skies and pilots began homing in on their targets. The variant hone in is attributed to former U.S. president George H. Bush – the Bush family is of
course renowned for its malapropisms. To hone means to sharpen, so hone in does convey the idea of grinding away at something, ever sharpening one’s focus.
- Free rein / Free reign. To give free rein means to grant freedom of action, as when a horseback rider slackens the reins.
Free reign is definitely a free range eggcorn, though it does also convey the sense of giving permission to act freely.
- Wrought iron / rot iron. Wrought iron is simply ironwork forged by hand (or made to look that way). But rot iron only
makes sense if the iron has rusted to the point of brittleness.
- Without further ado / Without further adieu. To do something without further ado means to proceed with no more fuss. On the other hand,
without further adieu would imply proceeding with no more goodbyes. Not to make much ado about it, we’ll just stop this one in its tracks and bid it a final
farewell.
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Buzz Off : No problem
The expression “No problem” is gaining currency, especially among younger age groups, as a way to acknowledge thanks or praise for a service rendered.
This is fine in an informal setting, but it can sound offhand or even jarring when uttered by a service provider who’s just been thanked for performing his or her normal duties.
As far as clients or customers are concerned, doing one’s job should never be a problem. Better to stick to the traditional responses:
- “You’re welcome.”
- “My pleasure.”
- “Thank you.”
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Is there a buzzword you would like to banish? Just send your suggestion to writer@ecwriting.com, and we’ll do our best
to send it packing in a future issue.
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Parting Words
“You can see a lot just by observing.”
– Yogi Berra, Major League Baseball player and manager
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