What’s an eggcorn?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Oxford English Dictionary say that an eggcorn, which first appeared in 2003, is:

 

“An alteration of a word or phrase through the mishearing or reinterpretation of one or more of its elements as a similar-sounding word.”

 

And the Wikipedia page for it says that:

 

“An eggcorn is the alteration of a word or phrase through the mishearing or reinterpretation of one or more of its elements, creating a new phrase that is plausible when used in the same context. Thus an eggcorn is an unexpectedly fitting or creative malapropism.” 

 

There is an article by Merrill Perlman at the Columbia Journalism Review on December 11, 2019 titled ‘Eggcorns,’ and other incorrect homophones. He noted that the eggcorn ‘another thing coming’ had replaced the original ‘another think coming, and the eggcorn ‘hone in’ replaced ‘home in.’

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another article at The Drum on November 20, 2025 is titled This clever Specsavers campaign tackled hearing loss stigma. They came up with a 7-page pdf article titled The Misheard Manifesto, which has the ten eggcorns shown above in a table.

 

My eggcorn was assembled from an egg and corn at OpenclipArt. I also got an acorn from there.