Egg Corn
Oronyms
An idiosyncratic substitution of a word or phrase for a word or words that sound similar or identical in the speaker's dialect. The new phrase introduces a meaning that is different from the original but plausible in the same context, such as "old-timers' disease" for "Alzheimer's disease".
Origin
Linguist Geoffrey Pullum coined the term in September 2003 on the blog Language Log, responding to linguist Mark Liberman's article about a woman who said "egg corn" for "acorn." Liberman noted this specific substitution lacked a name, and Pullum suggested using egg corn itself as the label. Interestingly, as early as 1844, people reinterpreted "acorn" as "eggcorn," either deliberately or innocently, since acorns are egg-shaped seeds. The term became widely accepted by the mid-2000s, appearing in books, journals, and online.