Wouldja believe ..

The Hindu had a interesting article about some word mangling that has been happening and the blame is being laid on internet culture. However the interesting thing (for me) is that I found I was guilty of some of the manglings. I was quite surprised :-)

Here's a listing:

correct: just deserts | wrong: just desserts
correct: strait-laced | wrong: straight-laced
correct: fount of wisdom| wrong: font of wisdom
correct: free rein | wrong: free reign
correct: buck naked | wrong: butt naked
correct: vocal cords | wrong: vocal chords
correct: shoo-in | wrong: shoe-in

To conclude they made an interesting point about common word usage: only men seem to hijack, crouch, kidnap, rob, grin, shoot, dig, stagger, leap, invent or brandish.
And only women seem to consent, faint, sob, cohabit (!), undress (:-)), clutch, scorn or gossip.

The 'co-habit' and 'undress' things remind me of an amusing thing I read a long time back: in a survey of sexual behavior, the number of different sex partners that men on average claimed to have, was above the average for women.

Doesn't compute :-)