Did the title of this blog make your forehead wrinkle in confusion? If it did, then you’re the victim of an egg corn. Actually, two egg corns. If the title were written correctly, it would say, “In Other Words, Cut to the Chase.” Which means, “By way of explanation, stop wasting time and tell me what’s most important.” But that wouldn’t be as fun, now would it?
If you’re wondering what the fluff? an egg corn is, I wondered the same thing a couple months ago. An egg corn is a word or phrase that someone substitutes for a common phrase they’ve misheard or misinterpreted, because to them, their phrase still makes sense. Sometimes the substitution can be somewhat logical. But often, it’s hilarious or absurd. The word “acorn” has been mistakenly spoken as “egg corn” by countless people since the 1800s. In 2003, Mark Liberman finally coined the phrase “egg corn” as an official linguistic term and made a blog post about it. And here we are today.
Editors will typically correct an egg corn that has been mistakenly substituted for a common phrase. Even before I was aware of the term, I corrected these types of phrasing errors. But I can think of a few situations when authors might intentionally include an egg corn or two in their writing:
- in dialogue, when a character unknowingly speaks a phrase incorrectly
- in dialogue, when a character is trying to be funny
- in narrative, as an intentional play on words in relation to surrounding text
- in narrative, as a method of humor
If you’re looking for a list of egg corns, there’s a link to one at the end of the post. Keep reading to solve a couple egg-corn quizzes that I created for your amusement.
In each pair of phrases below, one is the correct original form, and the other is an egg corn. For each of the ten pairs, guess which phrase is correct:
| stand at attention | stand at a tension |
[check answer]Correct! | [check answer]Nope. |
| old wise tale | old wives’ tale |
[check answer]Nope. | [check answer]Correct! |
| happy as a clown | happy as a clam |
[check answer]Nope. | [check answer]Correct! |
| taken for granted | taken for granite |
[check answer]Correct! | [check answer]Nope. |
| run the gambit | run the gamut |
[check answer]Nope. | [check answer]Correct! |
| tongue in cheek | tongue and cheek |
[check answer]Correct! | [check answer]Nope. |
| takes two to tango | takes two to tangle |
[check answer]Correct! | [check answer]Nope. |
| for all intensive purposes | for all intents and purposes |
[check answer]Nope. | [check answer]Correct! |
| nip it in the bud | nip it in the butt |
[check answer]Correct! | [check answer]Nope. |
| shutter to think | shudder to think |
[check answer]Nope. | [check answer]Correct! |
This one might be a little bit tougher. After experimenting with AI, I came up with these five images that represent some well-known egg corns. For each image, first try to guess the egg corn and then the original phrase that the egg corn comes from. Then reveal the answer on the right.
| [reveal answer]
Egg corn: chicken spots |
 | [reveal answer]
Egg corn: wheelbarrel |
 | [reveal answer]
Egg corn: biting my time |
 | [reveal answer]
Egg corn: escape goat |
 | [reveal answer]
Egg corn: skyscratcher |
And finally, I thought it would be fun to make up some new egg corns. For example, I made up an egg corn for “back to the drawing board.”
His first plan didn't work, so he went to smack two chalkboards and try something else. 😆
Here are 6 common American phrases. I’d love to hear how you think someone might accidentally (or purposefully) rephrase them. The more outrageous, the better. And bonus points if you use it in a sentence. Let me know in the comments!
- put the cart before the horse
- pull yourself up by your bootstraps
- bark up the wrong tree
- break a leg
- quit cold turkey
- swing for the fences
So how did you do on the quizzes?
Images created using DeepAI.
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