Talk:eggcorn
Kept. See archived discussion of August 2008. 06:11, 27 August 2008 (UTC)
Difference between "eggcorn" and folk etymology[edit]
I've never found this "eggcorn" term very useful or, rather, I've never got it at all. Because: What is the difference between it and a folk etymology? The present definition of "eggcorn" is the exact definition of a folk etymology: An idiosyncratic but semantically motivated substitution of a word or phrase for a word or words that sound identical, or nearly so, [...] And the same goes for the word "eggcorn" itself. Someone hears the word "acorn", doesn't really get what the "a-" is for, and thus replaces it with "eggcorn" because that kinda makes sense. That's the very definition of a folk etymology. Please try to explain the difference. — This comment was unsigned.
- A folk etymology is an often-superficial theory for where an already-existing word came from. An eggcorn is a new (re-)spelling of a word based on a misunderstanding/mishearing of it. Folk etymology can also motivate new/re- spellings, but it doesn't necessarily. (Senses 2 / 3 of folk etymology claim that that word can directly name those new spellings, although the citations seem like they're just mentioning things that happened as a result of folk etymology in sense 1.) - -sche (discuss) 04:07, 6 April 2018 (UTC)
- So, "eggcorn" is an eggcorn, whereas thinking that the "acorn" is called that because it's "a corn" would be a folk etymology. - -sche (discuss) 04:08, 6 April 2018 (UTC)