"drivel" is actually my favorite of these and I'm not even sure what kind of error this is

[cimorene]

1. the drivel they called coffee there was subpar,


2. He turns to Steve after, fixing his smile on him,


3. It donned on Steve


4. she said with a pittance of pity in her voice.


5. They come to some crazy, but not so far off concussions.


6. Then he’s tinged by annoyance.

Comments

[princessofgeeks]

Number four and number six are actually brilliant!

[cimorene]

They could've been clever if done intentionally.

[hebethen]

Hmm... I think "drivel" was meant to be "dreck", possibly with cognitive interference from liquids being able to "dribble".

[cimorene]

Oh, I bet you're right.

[oracne]

I continue to find these interesting!

[hebethen]

This suddenly made me wonder why there is such a cluster of "dr-" words that indicate "shitty, undesirable stuff" -- drivel, dreck, dregs, dross, etc. -- and surprisingly, at least according to Etymonline, not all of them are definitely from the same root. (Drivel and dregs definitely are; dross possibly; dreck entirely separate.)

[cimorene]

Maybe there's something like that theory of onomatopoeic words? And you know, that linguistic research about sounds that sound sharp and sounds that sound squishy or round?

[cimorene]

😆 And sometimes it's quite fun trying to figure out what type of error they are (when simple typo is ruled out, that is).

[hebethen]

Kiki and Bouba! "Shitty and undesirable" seems so much more abstract... but perhaps it's in combination with some kind of anchor in physical metaphors like the "mud" of the PIE root for drivel/dregs??