15 Awesome Names For Things You Never Knew Had Names
6. Eggcorn
Another word about words, eggcorn refers to the linguistic phenomenon that occurs when a misinterpretation or mishearing of a phrase makes just as much sense as the correct version of that phrase. The term itself is an eggcorn of the word acorn, which isnt the best example of an eggcorn, funnily enough. Eggcorns can often occur when one replaces an unfamiliar or obscure word with a more common one in their mind; a common example is old-timers disease as opposed to Alzheimers disease. Another such example is ex-patriot substituting for expatriate. Eggcorns arent to be confused with malapropisms, which create a nonsensical phrase. Eggcorns themselves are a charming insight into the flexibility and variability of our language, but just the fact that the word exists is in itself delightful: we have a word for words that substitute for other words to make a word, or words, that makes sense. God bless the English.
Canadian student. Spends probably an unhealthy amount of time enthusing over musicals, unpopular TV shows, and Harry Potter. Main life goal: to become fluent in Elvish.
