For anyone who's near a television this evening, you might want to turn on the 6:30 broadcast of ABC World News with Charles Gibson. Or, if you're not near a television, just click over to the webcast. At the end of the show is a short piece in honor of National Dictionary Day, and I was interviewed for it. I talk about how idioms get their spellings (and meanings) reshaped into new variants, sometimes to the point of meriting dictionary inclusion. Of course, we call those eggcorns around these parts, but unfortunately my discussion of the exciting field of eggcornology was too much for a two-minute segment. If you want a fuller exploration, check out my column on OUPblog that inspired ABC News correspondent Robert Krulwich in the first place.
[I'm not sure how long ABC's link to the video segment will last, so I've archived it here (15MB) and here (4MB).]
Posted by Benjamin Zimmer at October 16, 2007 06:04 PM