For All 'Intents and Purposes' vs. 'Intensive Purposes'

Tuesday, December 102 min read

It's easy to mishear words sometimes. But what happens when lots of people mishear the same word or phrase? It's like a game of "Telephone." The misused or misheard version might not quite make sense, but enough people are using it that it spreads.

These words and phrases are called "eggcorns," and they can spread rapidly, especially on the internet. "Eggcorn" itself is an eggcorn for "acorn," coined when some astute linguists were discussing these misheard words and realized there was no name for the phenomenon.

How Do You Know It’s an Eggcorn?

Usually, you don’t. Eggcorns don't really appear in a dictionary or language textbook, so they're more like slang. To tell the difference from an eggcorn and the appropriate word or phrase, the key is in the meanings of the words. Do these words make sense, used in this particular context? What is being implied?

Granted, not all of the real sayings make much more sense than the eggcorn. Some idioms were coined so long ago that the original meanings are forgotten. When technology or traditions change, formerly common ideas fall to the wayside, even while the related sayings live on. Folks still say "hang up the phone" when few people still have landlines with handheld receivers in their homes.

With almost all conundrums, a quick Google search will turn up most commonly mistaken eggcorns.

Don’t Put All Your Eggcorns in One Basket

Here are some common examples to help you recognize eggcorns in the wild.

Incorrect: Intensive purposes Correct: Intents and purposes

Incorrect: Wheelbarrel Correct: Wheelbarrow

Incorrect: Labtop Correct: Laptop

Incorrect: Pre-Madonna Correct: Prima donna

Incorrect: Ice tea Correct: Iced tea

Incorrect: Biting my time Correct: Biding my time

Incorrect: Would of Correct: Would’ve/Would have

Incorrect: Day-today Correct: Day-to-day

Incorrect: All over sudden Correct: All of a sudden

Incorrect: Firstable Correct: First of all

Incorrect: Feeble position Correct: Fetal position

Incorrect: Front in center Correct: Front and center

And our favorite, from the world of memes:

Incorrect: Bone apple tea Correct: Bon appétit

The list goes on. Some eggcorns sound the same in the mistaken forms as they do if said correctly. The differences are subtle, and sometimes the mistake is only revealed in written form. Example: "Could of" sounds almost identical to "could've," but the words "of" and "have" do have different meanings when written.

The comforting thing about eggcorns is that almost everyone guilty of using them. There are even eggcorns that people argue over which version is correct: "buck naked" and "butt naked" or "another thing coming" and "another think coming."

Do you know which version is correct? We’ll leave that up to you.

Feature photo credit: Cary Bates/ Unsplash

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