9 Language Mistakes We Should All Nip in the *Butt* Right Now
These *eggcorns* still pass *mustard* for all *intensive* purposes but why not say them correctly?
A coworker looked at me and said “I could care less but…”
“Then you care! Thank you!” I said.
“What?” he laughed.
“If you could care less, that means you have some level of caring and there’s still room to care less. Thank you so much for caring!”
He laughed at my brilliant stupidity.
There are many things we say incorrectly but everyone still knows what we mean. They call these words or phrases “eggcorns.”
The term was first coined by the British-American linguist Geoffrey Pullum. He chose how acorn is often said as the word to define this phenomenon.
Merriam Webster defines an eggcorn as:
a word or phrase that sounds like and is mistakenly used in a seemingly logical or plausible way for another word or phrase either on its own or as part of a set expression
Here are a few common ones you may be saying…or being irritated by.
