{"id":5171,"date":"2013-02-01T21:58:41","date_gmt":"2013-02-02T04:58:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=5171"},"modified":"2018-08-17T10:33:20","modified_gmt":"2018-08-17T16:33:20","slug":"an-eggcorn-that-annoys-me-a-lot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=5171","title":{"rendered":"An Eggcorn that Annoys Me a Lot"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"

Reins<\/p><\/div>\n

See the leather straps crossing the horse’s neck horizontally?. Those are reins<\/em>, held by the rider and used to direct the horse left or right.<\/p>\n

Raise your hand if you have held a set of horse reins in the last year. Yeah, about what I thought \u2014 not many of you have.<\/p>\n

As the Wikipedia entry on “reins” notes at the bottom<\/a>, there is certain eggcorn<\/a> connected with the word reins.<\/p>\n

If you hold them loosely, letting the horse (or team of horses pulling a carriage, etc.) go as fast or slow as they want and where they want, you have given it “free rein.”<\/p>\n

Not “free reign.”<\/p>\n

\"\"

Queen Elizabeth II. She reigns.<\/p><\/div>\n

Note the woman at right. She is Queen Elizabeth II, of whom it is sometimes said (as of other recent British monarchs) that “she reigns but does not rule.” In other words, she is the head of state, but she cannot make law nor order “Off with his head!”<\/p>\n

No show of hands about the queen, sorry. But the difference is clear enough.<\/p>\n

So when you want to restrict the spread or movement of something, you “rein (it) in.” Or someone gives you a power to do what you like \u2014 gives you “free rein.” But it has nothing to do with being a monarch.<\/p>\n

Yet I have found\u00a0 that egregious “eggcorn” in two scholarly books within the last two weeks, one from Johns Hopkins University Press and the other from Thames & Hudson, which “has always prided itself on the very high standards of the books it produces<\/a>.”<\/p>\n

The real lesson here<\/strong> is that writers should avoid those metaphors that are dead to them \u2014 or they make silly errors. And careless editors let them go through.<\/p>\n

For instance, I have shot antique-style flintlock guns, so I know what a “flash in the pan” looks, sounds, and smells like. It is a partial ignition of the priming powder that fails to set off the main powder charge and fire the gun. In other words, a promising start that goes nowhere. It has absolutely nothing to do with gold-panning, despite what some people think.<\/p>\n

If you have visited a steam-powered railway, like the Cumbres & Toltec<\/a>, you have seen a coal-burning locomotive “get up a head of steam”\u2014build sufficient steam pressure\u2014before it begins to move. But should you use such an expression if it leaves some readers puzzled?<\/p>\n

If your audience isn’t horsey, don’t give them free rein.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

See the leather straps crossing the horse’s neck horizontally?. Those are reins, held by the rider and used to direct the horse left or right. Raise your hand if you have held a set of horse reins in the last year. Yeah, about what I thought \u2014 not many of you have. As the Wikipedia […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[12],"class_list":["post-5171","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-writing"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6xQTg-1lp","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1214,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1214","url_meta":{"origin":5171,"position":0},"title":"Did a ‘Pagan’ Bury the Staffordshire Hoard?","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"September 25, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"The \"Staffordshire Hoard\" is a cache of 7th-century Anglo-Saxon sword jewels and other items recently found in England (and a great boost for metal-detector sales, no doubt).The caption on one slide of the golden hoard suggests that because a gold cross was folded in on itself before burial, the person\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"archaeology\"","block_context":{"text":"archaeology","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=archaeology"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6561,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=6561","url_meta":{"origin":5171,"position":1},"title":"The “Horse Boy” and the Shamans","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"July 6, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"If you saw the 2009\u00a0 documentary The Horse Boy, about Rowan, the autistic boy who is helped somewhat by horseback riding and by Mongolian shamans, there is more to the story. (There is also a book, The Horse Boy: A Memoir of Healing, published in 2010.) Before it was released\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"childhood\"","block_context":{"text":"childhood","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=childhood"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1546,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1546","url_meta":{"origin":5171,"position":2},"title":"The Horse Boy: See it for the Shamanism","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"April 28, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"When a psychology professor and a human-rights activist\/journalist have an autistic son, their lives become incredibly difficult. Among other things, little Rowan never learns bowel control, and like many autistic children, he is prone to screaming, inconsolable tantrums. 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