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Language Log: Once so ever

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Jasmine Bailey, "Pennsylvania newlyweds kill for the thrill", 12/7/2013: Friday night, police arrested 22-year-old Elytte Barbour in the November death of 42-year-old Troy LaFerrara. His 18-year-old wife, Miranda, was arrested for the same crime earlier this week. (Via WBRE) She says LaFerrara groped her and after convincing her to turn herself into police, Elytte defended his wife’s story. (Via The Daily Item) “I do not believe that this was malicious once so ever, I believe that she was attacked and that under those circumstances she took the necessary measures to defend herself.” (Via WHP-TV) The phrase "once so ever" is phonetically  similar to "whatsoever", at least in fluent speech — but "once so ever" is if anything even less semantically transparent than "whatsoever". So perhaps this substitution shouldn't count as a classic eggcorn, though it's clearly the result of  a similar process. Often, when such substitutions occur in print-media quotations, we have an attribution problem: was the original speaker responsible for the substitution, or did it happen somewhere further along the chain of transmission? In this case, we have a recording of the original quote, and so we know that the substitution took place at the transcription stage (or later): The same is true for a similar subsitution in an earlier TV News story — Joe Shortsleeve, "Questions Raised Over Wynn Land Deal For Possible Everett Casino", 11/21/2013 CBS Boston: Everett City Councilor Mike McLaughlin says these questions about Charles Lightbody will not hurt Wynn’s plans.   “I don’t think he has any involvement with this project once so ever. And I think the State Gaming Commission will do whatever is necessary to make sure casino gambling is successful,” McLaughlin said. And similarly for Erika Glover, "Ninety days to get out; church leaders negotiate with Transportation Cabinet", WKYT 11/12/2013: Pastor Boggs said, "There's no way we can buy land and rebuild in three months and what they're offering will not pay for the land in this area once so ever." It's possible that all of these examples come from one source, such as a shared transcription service. But as I noted a couple of years ago ("These people make no sense once so ever", 9/23/2010), substituting "once so ever" for "whatsoever" is surprisingly common. [Tip of the hat to Steven Tripp]  

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