Those people make no sense once so ever
« previous post | next post »
"Once so ever" for whatsoever is a surprisingly common eggcorn that hasn't yet been catalogued in the Eggcorn Database. Some examples:
He has no experience once so ever.
Those people make no sense once so ever and I think I'll just stay over here at /film.
I tried to cut gluten out for several weeks that made no change once so ever.
So we all finally get on and to my amazement there is absolutely no instruction once so ever!
Love when Bush was president, he had no problems once so ever.
i doubt one person moderating is going to make any difference once so ever.
Sigourney Weaver is very good in this five minute opening scene that throws us directly into the fire without any set up once so ever.
Apparently, they agreed as I was hired rather quikly, "just as everyone else was with no experience in sales once so ever.
Punctuation and spelling are often, but not always, a problem in other parts of the texts where this eggcorn is found:
The average American dosent understand that the Mint and the Federal Reserve are two tottaly seperate things that do not work together once so ever.
It hooks up great and There is no rubbing, once so ever.
Lady Gaga sucks and eminem is amazing. you and perez have no sense in music once so ever.
-Not intended for any MX once so ever-true but for trails its great!
The fact is is that in these cases innocent men can be convicted based only on heresay and no evidence once so ever.
[Hat tip: Bill Taylor.]
The Ridger said,
September 23, 2010 @ 8:49 pm
Hmmm. I kind of like "here-say". I think that's probably another eggcorn.
dirk alan said,
September 23, 2010 @ 9:23 pm
bucketheads – its once sew ever.
David Green said,
September 23, 2010 @ 10:25 pm
I thought being convicted based only on heresay (heresy?) went out with the Inquisition.
D.O. said,
September 23, 2010 @ 11:44 pm
Another possible substitution for whatsoever is once or ever. Of course, once or ever is a legitimate collocation, but watch these
then a server grabbed our drink order and we didnt get our drinks till 15 mins after that! (which were brought by a different server) with no communication once or ever.
Insurance by USPS is offered as an optional and costs only $1.50 to assure no problem once or ever with you freight!
Does not use or require any knowledge of the odds once or ever
It really does what it says.. no problems once or ever w my computer or system or nothing!
Oh my gosh I almost flipped out when I found out the band o 7 was human that made no sense once or ever to me.
Statistics: 5 eggcorns/33 leading ghits (i.e. 33rd ghit is 5th eggcorn, do not be worked up about someone out there unlearned in statistics).
Chris Travers said,
September 24, 2010 @ 12:50 am
Or check this one out (from http://www.reputationdefender.com/press_room/job-recruiters-checking-up-on-prospects/)
“There are no guarantees once or ever that negative items on Google will disappear,” he said.
What I want to know is if the eggcorn was in the spoken form.
groki said,
September 24, 2010 @ 2:02 am
so I guess D.O.'s examples are from rhotic speakers, with OP's being from non-rhotic. :)
by the way, possible alternatives once sore ever and once soar ever return no ghits whatsoever (at least, prior to this comment itself getting indexed).
Doreen said,
September 24, 2010 @ 2:14 am
@groki: British non-rhotic speakers would insert a linking /r/ between those vowels, though.
iching said,
September 24, 2010 @ 8:16 am
I am an Australian non-rhotic speaker and I believe I pronounce 'or ever' with a glottal stop in place of the /r/ and I believe most Australians do the same. Hence 'once or ever' would usually sound quite similar to "whatsoever" here. But I am like most people, notoriously unreliable as an observer of my own and others' speech patterns. (BTW is the apostrophe appropriate in the previous sentence?).
I don't know how widely it was reported internationally, but the 'non-rhotism with elided final /r/' became a hot political question in Australia recently, and (who knows?) might have had a role to play in the recent national election and the extraordinary result of a hung Parliament and a minority government.
The incumbent Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, always referred to the Opposition Leader, Tony Abbott, as "Mister Abbott". Midway through the campaign there erupted a storm of controversy about whether or not she was deliberately calling Tony "Mister Rabbit"!! I kid you not. Anyway, she was confronted by this allegation on national radio and denied being aware of it. She seemed genuinely shocked by the suggestion.
With the help of some independents and the first Lower House Greens MP she has just been able to form government.
Mr Punch said,
September 24, 2010 @ 12:48 pm
@ iching – As greens have good reason to be leery of rabbits, Ms. Gillard's ploy may have succeeded.
Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc said,
September 24, 2010 @ 1:02 pm
@iching: I visited Australia during the recent election, and heard many newsreaders talking about "Mister Rabbit". I did not immediately make the connection to Tony Abbott until context forced it.
Diane said,
September 24, 2010 @ 1:11 pm
How is "once so ever" an eggcorn? I thought eggcorns had to be some plausible substitution or re-interpretation of a phrase or word. I can't imagine what the speakers think "once so ever" means.
"Once or ever," on the other hand, is a clever eggcorn, in my opinion.
groki said,
September 24, 2010 @ 2:07 pm
@Diane: I'm a whatso-ist myself, but I imagine onceso-ists give the idiom an underlying meaning something like:
where the elisions are just part of what makes the idiom opaque.
for that matter, consider "whatsoever" itself: in my lexicon anyway, I tend to hear the what, the so, and the ever as quasi-separable, but my "idiom" of "what so ever" is even more opaque than "once so ever."
Jerry Friedman said,
September 24, 2010 @ 2:53 pm
@iching:
I definitely think the apostrophe is required.
Next question: Could anyone leave own out of that sentence? Would anyone use mine instead of my own?
Twitter Trackbacks for Language Log » Those people make no sense once so ever [upenn.edu] on Topsy.com said,
September 24, 2010 @ 9:25 pm
[…] Language Log » Those people make no sense once so ever languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=2655 – view page – cached "Once so ever" for whatsoever is a surprisingly common eggcorn that hasn't yet been catalogued in the Eggcorn Database. Some examples: Tweets about this link […]
iching said,
September 25, 2010 @ 11:57 pm
My mind has wandered from thinking about eggcorns and "whatsoever" to other …soever words. A search of COCA has revealed, to my delight, 2 examples of whensoever and 1 each of whithersoever and whichsoever.
For whatsoever there were 3746 examples (about evenly split between literary and spoken sources). Also whosoever (N=62), whomsoever(N=21), wheresoever (N=8), howsoever (N=10). Disappointingly, no examples of whysoever or whencesoever.
groki said,
September 26, 2010 @ 2:38 am
@iching: I'm holding out for whereforesoever.
groki said,
September 26, 2010 @ 2:43 am
@Jerry Friedman:
yes I could leave out own. the acceptability ranking for me is: my own > mine > my, but all are possible.
Harry said,
September 26, 2010 @ 5:44 am
"Once so ever" sounds a lot like "und so weiter." Maybe this thing is a vestige on English's German heritage.
Janice Byer said,
September 26, 2010 @ 11:44 pm
I'm with groki. To me "whatsoever" makes no sense whatsoever.
Online dictionaries define it as "whatever". Whatever. While Googling that, I learned there's also "whensoever", "wheresoever" and "whomsoever" which likewise mean the same as they would had they left poor little "so" out of it.
Ginger Yellow said,
September 27, 2010 @ 5:33 am
Janice: yes, but they sound much cooler.
iching said,
September 27, 2010 @ 8:07 am
Apologies for going off topic, I'm not trying to hijack the thread. It seems to be running out of steam anyway. I was just reading an article in The Australian newspaper about the latest political manoeuverings in Australia and this sentence struck me (quoting PM Julia Gillard referring to Opposition Leader Tony Abbott): "He's acting like a bull in a china shop, thinking his job is to smash everything he sees up". Can someone tell me the correct name for a phrase like "to smash up" where you can interpose a phrase between the "smash" and the "up"? Or point me to a LL thread where this has been discussed? Thanks.
Aaron Davies said,
September 27, 2010 @ 3:46 pm
"whosoever" is famous from various bible verses, most obviously John 3:16, "… that whosoever believeth in him should not perish …" (KJV).
Aaron Davies said,
September 27, 2010 @ 3:47 pm
@iching: looks like a phrasal verb to me
M said,
January 3, 2012 @ 11:54 pm
No. "my" and "mine" are not interchangeable. The former is an adjective requiring an object – my book, my scarf, etc- to modify. The latter is a pronoun that refers to an already-understood possession. Ie: whose scarf is that? It's mine.