My friend is the master of wrong pronunciation. Two which come to mind are balsamatic vinegar and how much she enjoys Andrew Roo on the television.She has countless others.
I bet whoever said that said it out of pure ignorance. Had no idea of the actual word, ‘scapegoat ‘, or the biblical reference Such is education these days .
It's an egg corn - substituting a similar sounding word for the 'correct' one. Other examples include 'toeing the line', 'passing mustard' and 'tenderhooks'.
As they are all idioms it's not really 'pure ignorance', so much as not knowing where/how the phrases originated.
Yes an eggcorn. Scape means an act of escaping (OED).
Ann Patchett published a children’s book titled Escape Goat which is about a a curious goat who keeps escaping from its pen on a farm. Each time the goat escapes, something around the farm goes wrong. The goat is really being used as a scapegoat by the farmer’s family, taking the blame for everyone else’s mischief.
Act 1 Scene 4. Hamlet said he was to the manner born but it’s sometimes written as to the manor born implying wealth and status - as in the popular BBC series.
It's an egg corn - substituting a similar sounding word for the 'correct' one. Other examples include 'toeing the line', 'passing mustard' and 'tenderhooks'.
As they are all idioms it's not really 'pure ignorance', so much as not knowing where/how the phrases originated.
Or indeed what they mean.
NB Toeing the line is correct! It’s “towing” that is wrong. ⬆️ Hope this is legible- you may need to enlarge it.
It's an egg corn - substituting a similar sounding word for the 'correct' one. Other examples include 'toeing the line', 'passing mustard' and 'tenderhooks'.
As they are all idioms it's not really 'pure ignorance', so much as not knowing where/how the phrases originated.
Or indeed what they mean.
NB Toeing the line is correct! It’s “towing” that is wrong. ⬆️ Hope this is legible- you may need to enlarge it.
Yes, it was autocorrect that changed it, as I said immediately I saw what had happened.
‘towing the line’ referred to horse drawn barges before motorisation, the large heavy horse plodding along a tow path
I disagree. There is no such expression about 'towing' the line, other than as a misunderstanding of the meanings of 'toe the line' and 'toeing the line, which have well documented military and naval origins.
‘ Escapegoat’ was one of Auntie’s favourites, along with ‘ignorantramus’!
‘ Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned’ is a paraphrase of ‘-‘Heaven has no rage like love to hatred turned, nor Hell a fury like a woman scorned’ Then there’s - ‘ Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall’
Scapegoat is mentioned in Leviticus . It has a Hebrew origin . Two goats were brought to the Yom Kippur temple and one was freed and the other sacrificed .
I just looked it up and the scapegoat was the one freed and as he did so he took away sin Tyndale originally introduced the word as escapegoat ! Leviticus 16 . Now that's interesting. Google is a great if you can't get back to sleep !