Summary
Briana Boston, 42, was charged with threatening a health insurance company after repeating words linked to the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
During a recorded call with Blue Cross Blue Shield about a denied claim, Boston said, “Delay, deny, depose, you people are next,” echoing phrases engraved on bullet casings at Thompson’s murder scene.
Authorities allege she exploited the CEO’s homicide to make the threat.
Boston, a mother of three with no prior criminal record, was arrested and held on $100,000 bail amidst warnings of potential copycat incidents targeting healthcare executives.
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‘Eggcorn’ is a linguistics term for a new word or phrase that is slightly different to an older one- substituting words that sound smilar- yet still makes sense and has a similar meaning to the older term, for example:
Sometimes the eggcorns make more sense to modern speakers than the older term and it may eventually usurp them entirely. I don’t think many peple know what a ‘moot’ is anymore. If ‘mute’ makes more sense to more people it’s likely to grow in popularity.
I don’t know why linguists chose ‘eggcorn’ as the eponym; I’m sure I’ve never actually heard anyone say “eggcorn” to mean “acorn” - apart from me since I learnt about this phenomenon.