If I were to say the word eggcorn to you, what would you think? Would you imagine I was having a funny five minutes? Or that I’d just seen a nut, wanted to tell you about it, but had got my tongue in a knot? Or would you know that eggcorn is the term for a new word you come up with when you accidentally mishear or mispronounce the correct one, but this new word turns out to be remarkably fitting. So as a child, when adults say:
If you think you’re going to keep on doing that, you’ve got another think coming.
and it gradually morphs into
If you think you’re going to keep on doing that, you’ve got another thing coming.
it doesn’t seem all that odd – the ‘other thing’ is probably some horrible punishment!
To find out more about eggcorns, take a look at this MED Magazine article.
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[…] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Marcia Bezelga and Marcia Bezelga, Macmillan Dictionary. Macmillan Dictionary said: When is a word not what you think it is? When it's an eggcorn: http://www.macmillandictionaryblog.com/ooh-look-at-that-eggcorn […]