Thursday, March 24, 2011

Eggcorns





Youthamism:
A misspelling of the word euphemism.
"Youthamism" is what is called an eggcorn--a word that is a misspelling of the original word, but sounds like the word it is trying to reference. An 'eggcorn' is really an 'acorn' with a different spelling.

A euphemism is a more pleasant or cleaner word that is substituted for a dirty word.

Euphemisms aren't just for the youth trying to say something dirty in a nice way, plenty of old people use euphemisms as well. In fact, if your parents knew how many euphemisms Shakespeare used, they probably would try to get him banned from school!


1 comment:

  1. "Ease drop" is a really good example of one I have always used. It wasn't until the past couple of years where I have discovered the correct term is actually eaves drop. Another one I have used in the past is "bloodgeon" instead of the correct term, bludgeon.

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