July 17, 2004

Fly Serendipity Airwaves

Chris Waigl at ˌser.ən'dɪp.ɪ.ti has discovered, explored, documented and explained the eggcorn "airways" for airwaves.

Her first sighting of the substitution was in a Variety op-ed piece by Larry Lessig!

Chris takes us on a genuinely serendipitous tour. There's something for everyone, including an analysis of the metaphor involved, evidence that journalists make this substitution more often than the general public does, and a plausible idea about why. There's even a discussion of Maxwell's equations.

Posted by Mark Liberman at July 17, 2004 02:10 PM