| General Non-Fiction posted November 20, 2021 | Chapters: |
...12 13 -14- 15... 
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COMPILATION: malaprops for your amusement, not review
A chapter in the book Idioms Explained
Idioms Misconstrued
by Elizabeth Emerald
| Background Goal Accomplished by eileen0204 on FanArtReview.com THANK YOU! |
Give your stars to Google: This is not my work.
I hope you get a chuckle or three from these. The third was purposefully crafted by a man of great wit; wish I'd come up with it. Alas, I'm just a half-wit.
Doggy-dog world
https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/148120/where-did-doggy-dog-world-come-from
This Ngram shows that people were happily saying "dog eat dog world" until the 1980s, when "doggy dog world" abruptly came into use.
What might have accounted for this? (It was well before Snoop Dogg's single "Doggy Dogg World").
Did this phrase come into recorded being as genuine wordplay, or as an "eggcorn"?
Yes, it's an eggcorn. People are still saying dog eat dog world, but now they're writing it differently. As you'll note, doggy dog world and dog eat dog world are hard or impossible to distinguish in speech (just like acorn and eggcorn are), and consequently can get transcribed wrong, especially given English spelling. No doubt Snoop's single helped it become cool.
The rise of "doggy-dog world" in the mid-1980s seems to have occurred independently of the instance [below] recorded in 1972. Andrew Tobias, Money Angles (1984) [combined snippets] introduces the wording in the context of a child's misunderstanding of the phrase "dog-eat-dog world":
As for "doggy dog world," the first Google Books match is from U.S. Senate Committee on Veteran Affairs, Educational Benefits Available for Returning Vietnam Era Veterans (1972) [snippet]:
"What made Nam so beautiful, in a sense, was that people there worked together. You could depend on your buddy. But here it's a doggy-dog world."
There was sadness, perhaps even a trace of bitterness, in the voice of [John] Buchanan, a veteran of 15 months in Vietnam and a drop-out of the Police and Fire Department's training program for minorities. He is now unemployed.
Nip it in the butt.
https://www.merriam-webster.com/video/nip-it-in-the-butt-bud-eggcorn-video
https://www.dictionary.com/browse/nip--in--the--bud
... This metaphoric expression, alluding to a spring frost that kills flower buds, was first recorded in a Beaumont and Fletcher play of 1606-1607.
We'll jump off that bridge when we come to it.
https://quotefancy.com/quote/1361888/Lester-B-Pearson-We-ll-jump-off-that-bridge-when-we-come-to-it
A great memorable quote from the City Slickers movie on Quotes.net - Barbara Robbins: We'll jump off that bridge when we come to it.
I hope you get a chuckle or three from these. The third was purposefully crafted by a man of great wit; wish I'd come up with it. Alas, I'm just a half-wit.
Doggy-dog world
https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/148120/where-did-doggy-dog-world-come-from
This Ngram shows that people were happily saying "dog eat dog world" until the 1980s, when "doggy dog world" abruptly came into use.
What might have accounted for this? (It was well before Snoop Dogg's single "Doggy Dogg World").
Did this phrase come into recorded being as genuine wordplay, or as an "eggcorn"?
Yes, it's an eggcorn. People are still saying dog eat dog world, but now they're writing it differently. As you'll note, doggy dog world and dog eat dog world are hard or impossible to distinguish in speech (just like acorn and eggcorn are), and consequently can get transcribed wrong, especially given English spelling. No doubt Snoop's single helped it become cool.
The rise of "doggy-dog world" in the mid-1980s seems to have occurred independently of the instance [below] recorded in 1972. Andrew Tobias, Money Angles (1984) [combined snippets] introduces the wording in the context of a child's misunderstanding of the phrase "dog-eat-dog world":
As for "doggy dog world," the first Google Books match is from U.S. Senate Committee on Veteran Affairs, Educational Benefits Available for Returning Vietnam Era Veterans (1972) [snippet]:
"What made Nam so beautiful, in a sense, was that people there worked together. You could depend on your buddy. But here it's a doggy-dog world."
There was sadness, perhaps even a trace of bitterness, in the voice of [John] Buchanan, a veteran of 15 months in Vietnam and a drop-out of the Police and Fire Department's training program for minorities. He is now unemployed.
Nip it in the butt.
https://www.merriam-webster.com/video/nip-it-in-the-butt-bud-eggcorn-video
Sometimes a word that sounds like the right word and feels like the right word isn't actually the right word. It's an eggcorn. You don't nip something in the butt if you want to stop it before it gets worse, though, maybe that would work in some cases.
No, you nip it in the bud. You figuratively pinch off the bud before it opens into a leaf or flower.
https://www.dictionary.com/browse/nip--in--the--bud
... This metaphoric expression, alluding to a spring frost that kills flower buds, was first recorded in a Beaumont and Fletcher play of 1606-1607.
We'll jump off that bridge when we come to it.
https://quotefancy.com/quote/1361888/Lester-B-Pearson-We-ll-jump-off-that-bridge-when-we-come-to-it
A great memorable quote from the City Slickers movie on Quotes.net - Barbara Robbins: We'll jump off that bridge when we come to it.
Artwork by eileen0204 at FanArtReview.com
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