Discussion Forum—A Way with Words, a fun radio show and podcast about language

Have to admit I did not know the word "eggcorn" until I read Glenn's post, followed his links, and then looked up the definition. Thank you sir, for introducing me to a word for which I already had the meaning  but not the word. I've mentioned several times in this forum how, back in grade school, I thought the Taj Mahal was the "Tajma Hall" or maybe "Tazhma Hall" ... from the images in travelogue and history shows, it was obviously (to me) a "Hall" of some type.

Then one day I saw it in print and realized the error of my ways. I knew this had to be a common enough category of error to deserve a name, but I just didn't know what to call it. Now I do. And as Glenn's link showed, there are forums devoted entirely to eggcorns. Another of Glenn's links pointed me to a thread on this forum, where he introduced that word to some other forum members. But that thread predates my membership by 8 years.

There are 1.5 billion hits when Goggle "word for the day" or "word of the day," a number that truly surprised me. Looking at those search results 3 pages deep confirms they are indeed websites dedicated to teaching you one new (usually obscure) word each day, though not all in English.

Nonetheless, not a one of them are in my favorite bookmarks. I prefer forums like this to learn new words, since they aren't just chosen randomly from lists of obscure words or at the whim of the website author. Rather, here at AWWW those words are introduced, in context, and in a discussion where I at least have some amount of interest.

Google does a nice job when you enter "define eggcorn" (or whatever). Would be nice if there was something like an "inverse dictionary" online, where one could enter a reasonably clear definition, and a list of candidate words would be returned. If you Google "inverse dictionary" or "reverse dictionary" you get millions of hits, many of which are simply the definition of "inverse" or "reverse."

But you also get some hits for actual "reverse dictionaries." So I tried a few of them, using the cited definition of "eggcorn" (and permutations of same). None returned "eggcorn" as a possible solution. Maybe that's because spell-check flags "eggcorn." Maybe that's because the search algorithms still need work. But if anyone knows a reverse dictionary that works really well, please post the link. Thanks.

You are both right. Next topic: The internet -- blessing or curse?

Colonel Foghorn Egghorn Senior
Foghorn Leghorn's ancestor was captured behind enemy lines in the Great Chicken and Egg War. His memories of it are a little scrambled, though. Foghorn Egghorn is the only ancestor to look nothing like his descendant, as he his just a big egg.

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