Caroline Bologna is a senior reporter covering a variety of lifestyle topics at HuffPost. Based in New York, she is a New Orleans native and graduate of Brown University.
From trademarks to eggcorns, there have been many steps along the journey of our different terms for a rolling suitcase. I like to fancy myself a seasoned traveler, so imagine my surprise when I learned I might be using the wrong term for a common type of luggage.
Growing up, my parents always said “rollerboard” in reference to wheeled suitcase, and I followed suit. But on a recent text thread, I noticed a friend wrote “rollaboard,” prompting me to question everything I’ve ever believed.Still, officially speaking, which is it? Rollaboard? Rollerboard? Roll-aboard? Roll Aboard? Something else entirely? I turned to some experts ― and the vast archives of the internet ― to find out.in the New Jersey newspaper the Daily Record presents a collection of bags with the descriptor “U.S. Luggage Roll-Aboard Group,” available at M. Epstein’s department store in Morristown.“‘Rollerboard’ began appearing as a more generic term in the 1990s,” Zimmer explained. “It may have started out as a misinterpretation of ‘roll-aboard,’ but it also avoided the trademarked term, as this Even more recently, Jonathan Franzen used the word “rollerboard” in his 2018 book of essays “The End of the End of the Earth” ― much to the dismay of pilot and blogger. Author Gary Shteyngart also went with that version of the term in his novel “Lake Success,” which was published that same year.In reference to the suitcase, Zimmer noted that “rollerboard” is a great example of an eggcorn ― an alteration of a word or phrase that results from the misinterpretation or mishearing of one or more of its elements. The term “eggcorn” isand unlike a malapropism, this reshaping of the original word or phrase still makes sense and seems logical in the same context, just in a different way.told HuffPost, “It’s ‘roll-aboard’ ― which could be written with a hyphen, a space, or as a closed compound ― because it rolls aboard a plane.” Still, the “rollerboard” eggcorn also has some logic because the term evokes an object with wheels, like a skateboard or a piece of luggage. “Re-analyzing elements of words or compounds is known as ‘folk etymology’ among other names,” Sheidlower noted. “Often this happens when less-common words or elements are replaced by more-common ones.” He shared the example of “bridegroom,” which in the past was more like “bride-goom,” as “goom” was Middle English for “man” As “goom” fell out of use, the latter half of the word was replaced with “groom” ― a more common word that meant “boy” or “male child.”“Another example is ‘wheelbarrel,’ a common variant of ‘wheelbarrow,’ because the word ‘barrow’ is relatively uncommon, and a wheelbarrow does look like something that could be made from a half of a barrel,” Sheidlower added. “In your example, neither ‘roll’ nor ‘aboard’ are particularly unusual, but ‘roller’ is very common, and ‘rollerboard’ is at least a plausible-sounding compound.” So while “rollaboard” may have come first, the gist is that both “rollaboard” and “rollerboard” work just fine. And I no longer have to question the nature of my reality ― at least not with regard to this.Realness delivered to your inbox By entering your email and clicking Sign Up, you're agreeing to let us send you customized marketing messages about us and our advertising partners. You are also agreeing to our
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