L'error
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In our discussion of part III of Elle Cordova's Grammarian Saga, "Grammarian vs Errorist showdown at the secret L'error", there was some back-and-forth about whether or not error could stand it for the nucleus of lair.
AntC wrote "I can't smudge 'error; into a single syllable", and I responded that "Elle Cordova does it by brute force — I don't think 'air' is her normal pronunciation of 'error'".
But looking into pronunciations of error on the internet, I've found that her "l'error" ~ "lair" pun is, in fact, pretty plausible.
In a 2012 story on Morning Edition, "Court Rules Against Part of Marriage Act", Dale Showengerdt says
And I think that was a significant legal error, and- and one
that we anticipate the Supreme Court will remedy.
Because the final /l/ of legal bleeds into the start of error, excising error's audio actually yields something that can pass for lair:
In the 10 random examples that I checked, error sounded effectively monosyllabic (i.e. similar to air) about half the time, which is consistent with comments by Roger C and Bob Ladd.
Biased said,
November 21, 2025 @ 2:14 pm
Agreed. I think the way the word would be pronounced with a French accent puts it even closer
Jarek Weckwerth said,
November 21, 2025 @ 3:28 pm
@ Mark Liberman Isn't it the case that AntC is non-rhotic? That would make a monosyllabic pronunciation quite unlikely.
Y said,
November 21, 2025 @ 3:57 pm
Cf. tourist-terrorist homophony.