Sendecki’s Blog

At work today, I discovered an interesting malapropism in a report I was helping out with—‘augers well’ for ‘augurs well.’ Interestingly, ‘augers well’ has entered the lexicon.

• Augur (the verb—ie to foretell) is from Middle English, derived from Latin and has Indo-European roots.
• Auger (the noun—ie a drill) is also from Middle English, but is an alteration of the word ‘nauger’, which is derived from Old English rather than latin—see nafogÄ?r, auger.

From the Eggcorn database:

The verb “augur� ‘foretell’ occurs in modern English with any frequency only in the idiom “augur well/badly (for)�, so it’s ripe for respelling with the verb “auger�, related to the noun denoting a boring tool (though “auger� is itself a rather specialized word — just not as specialized as “augur�). The references treat this as a simple spelling error, and it might well be; the question is whether some people who use it think that boring is somehow involved in the meaning, perhaps though current states of affairs boring, metaphorically, into the future.

Certainly, the “auger� spelling is common: on 10 April 2005, I got ca. 12,400 raw Google web hits for “augers well for�, a respectable number in comparison to ca. 63,500 for “augurs well for�.

As of today (May 14, 2007) I get ca. 41,300 raw google hits for “augers well for” — vs ca. 248,00 for “augurs well forâ€?. So it seems that the ratio has been maintained.

The above, of course, is an ‘auger’.