What is an eggcorn?

An eggcorn is an incorrect phrase which the speaker thinks makes sense because it sounds like the correct version and contains words that are related to the topic.

The word ‘eggcorn’ comes from a mispronunciation of ‘acorn’.

Below you can find 34 classic examples of eggcorns, but first let’s look at how eggcorns are made. They are created accidentally for a variety of reasons:

a) the speaker is unfamiliar with the correct word or phrase, but knows the general sounds and therefore substitutes words they know that seem to fit, e.g.

old-timers’ disease instead of Alzheimer’s disease

b) connected speech makes the phrase difficult to process; the last sound of the first word is not pronounced and the syllables run together, e.g.

ice tea instead of iced tea

c) the incorrect word is very similar to the correct word, e.g.

illicit a response instead of elicit a response

d) the correct word is foreign and unfamiliar to the speaker, e.g.

expresso instead of espresso

e) the writer does not know that words which sound the same are spelled differently, e.g.

wet your appetite instead of whet your appetite

f) grammatical knowledge is lacking, e.g.

should of instead of should have

g) maybe you have heard an incorrect phrase so often that it becomes normal for you and you use it by default, e.g.

pacific / pacifically instead of specific / specifically

In general, eggcorns are to be avoided in both spoken and written English because they reduce effective communication and can lead to confusion, e.g. these two phrases appear to have opposite meanings:

I could care less instead of I couldn’t care less

On the other hand, though, eggcorns have the potential to be really cute and make you smile, e.g.

a damp squid instead of a damp squib

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Here are 34 classic examples of English eggcorns. Do you know any more?

34 Cracking English Eggcorns

Images: rawpixel and OpenClipart-Vectors from Pixabay