» Eggcorn is the linguistic term for "spontaneous reshapings of known expressions. [...] Not every homophone substitution is an eggcorn. The crucial element is that the new form makes sense: for anyone except lexicographers or other people trained in etymology, more sense than the original form in many cases." My grandfather told me that when he was a child, he thought the term was "take it for granite" (for "take it for granted"). He knew that granite was one of the hardest rocks, and so it made sense to him that if you could "take it for granite", you could rely on it. I don't find this usage in the Eggcorn database. (via mlarson)
rebecca's pocket
.: August 2006 --> Eggcorns
Eggcorns
[ 08.11.06 ]
I always thought it was "off their rocket." I just did a Google search, and I'm not alone. I got 37,800 hits for "off their rocker" and 42 for "off their rocket." (I didn't check to see if any of these had to do with NASA!) Interestingly, the numbers are about the same for the pronoun "her" (44,900/38) but much higher for "his." (151,000/41).
On second look, only some of those "off her/his/their rocket" have to do with being crazy. More than a few of them were "fire off her rocket," having to do with actual rockets, or were metaphors for throwing baseballs and such. But a few of them fit the meaning of "crazy," "misinformed," or the like.