That there is a linguistic term for want-of-bees? The eggcorn. See link.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eggcorn
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eggcorn
Were We Aware of This, Concerning WOBs?
- Thread starter markfromj
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Yeah, it was brought up quite some time ago, before the purging of us poors from HROT. If I remember correctly, Lone Clone was quite active in the discussion.
When did the 'want of bees' originate? That was pre-2005 at least, wasn't it?
- Sep 13, 2002
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Lone Clone drops that one from time to time.
I think most are also malapropisms (to use a more academic term), although the prof who coined eggcorn has a bit more narrow definition.
I have written about this at some length on this board. The eggcorn is most definitely NOT what most HROT denizens think is a WOB.
- Sep 13, 2002
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I think the more fair thing to say is that while all eggcorns are WOBs, not all WOBs are eggcorns.
Here is the list of eggcorns from the Wiki article - and I think every one of them would be an HROT-certified WOB:
Examples[edit]
- ex-patriot instead of expatriate[5]
- mating name instead of maiden name[6]
- on the spurt of the moment instead of on the spur of the moment[2]
- preying mantis instead of praying mantis[7]
However, by your own omission you're not sure what the HROT denizens think is a WOB...
I assume you did that on porpoise. Kudos.
As to the meat of your statement, the reason I am not sure is that during discussions of the subject years ago, different members of HROT came up with different -- sometimes contradictory -- definitions of a WOB. What seemed certain was that nobody thought a WOB was what I thought it was -- which turned out to be an eggcorn, which is a word I hadn't heard at the time -- so I declined to identify WOBs here anymore, in deference to HROT, which invented the word.
The key to an eggcorn is that it has to make a sort of sense in context. That is, you had to be able to understand how someone, hearing the word or phrase, misunderstood it to be something else.
I was told in no uncertain terms that a WOB must NOT make any sense. Obviously, then, an eggcorn cannot be a WOB. To me, that means a WOB is simply a malapropism, but again, it's your word, not mine, so you can define it however you wish. Maybe the two guys who told me that a WOB cannot make sense didn't know what a WOB is.
I am not trying to make them the escape goats in this discussion. And I am not acting like a pre-Madonna. For all intensive purposes, I am just acknowledging that no definition is the best thing since life's bread. It's a doggy-dog world out there.
I automatically don't like whoever told you this. The best WOBs, apparently, are eggcorns. It's much much funnier when the error changes the meaning rather than rendering the expression meaningless.
I was also told -- again, in no uncertain terms -- that if a word sounded exactly like another one, it was not a WOB. Which seems strange, but that's what I was told.
Actually, not only are some WOBs not eggcorns, but the grandfather of all WOB -- "want of bee" -- is not an eggcorn. There's no way you can imagine that meaning anything.
Wouldn't copying straight from the site be a copywrite in fridge mint?
Most things that get called WOBs qualify as malapropisms or these "eggcorns" I'm learning about. You're absolutely right about "want of bee," now that I think about it. A lot of suggestions were made about what the phrase "want of bee" could mean (different ways to desire stinging social insects), but none of them made sense in the context of Mr. Teach's post.
