r/ireland • u/[deleted] • Mar 13 '16

Paddy not Patty

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u/Oggie243 Mar 13 '16

It's a phenomenon known as "eggcorns" where the wrong version is used because it makes sense.

So called because people thought that acorns were called Eggcorns cause they're little egg shaped seeds.

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u/Nocturnalized Mar 13 '16

"Makes sense"

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u/Oggie243 Mar 13 '16

It makes sense in the sense that the person calling an acorn 'an eggcorn' does so because they're egg shaped so it makes sense to them because they think it's named for the shape.

If you slink eggcorns into Wikipedia it'll give you a list of them which is quite fun to read.

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u/TRiG_Ireland Offaly Mar 13 '16

Two I've come across "in the wild" are lame man (layman) and shade some light (shed some light).