Eggcorn
- “what is an eggcorn”
- “eggcorn vs malapropism”
- “for all intensive purposes”
- “deep seeded meaning”
:: COMPARE ::
EggcornvsFolk etymology
The short answer
Folk etymology reanalyses a word's origin across a whole speech community — 'Jerusalem artichoke' from Italian girasole. An eggcorn is one speaker's phonetically-driven, locally sensible substitution. Same mechanism, different scale.
Side by side
| Aspect | Eggcorn | Folk etymology |
|---|---|---|
| Scale | One speaker | A community |
| Becomes standard | Rarely | Often |
| Makes sense | Must | Must |
| Named | 2003 | 19th century |
Which one you meant
Readers who land here meaning Eggcorn rather than Folk etymology are usually searching for phrases like “what is an eggcorn”, “eggcorn vs malapropism”, “for all intensive purposes”.
Read either one in full