Wiggle room or wriggle room...?

I have to say I've only ever heard 'wiggle room' and I'm almost 100% sure that 'wriggle room' is a kind of lexical version of an eggcorn.

Based on the idea of someone who mis-heard 'acorn' as 'eggcorn,' the following is an explanation of the term:

In an eggcorn, people replace the right word with a different word that sounds almost the same and that makes logical sense in the phrase.
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With 'wriggle room' you have a word that both looks and sounds similar enough to lead to the substitution of one word for the other.

It is also the case that sometimes, such eggcorns become accepted over time, simply due to force of usage.
 
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Actually, speaking of eggcorns reminds me of one of my favourite recently-discovered words: "mondegreen."

A mondegreen is similar to an eggcorn but refers to something that has been the subject of a number of threads on fmttm over the years, misheard song lyrics. Here's an extract from an online article about this.

"The name "mondegreen" was coined by a writer named Sylvia Wright who misheard a line from a 17th-century Scottish ballad.

Ye Highlands and ye Lowlands,

Oh, where hae ye been?

They hae slain the Earl of O’ Moray,

And laid him on the green.

Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately for the future of word play), Wright heard the last line as “And Lady Mondegreen” instead of “And laid him on the green.”

One difference between an eggcorn and a mondegreen is that an eggcorn typically retains the meaning of the original phrase whereas a mondegreen usually alters it completely.
 
I'm a wiggler, only heard wriggle used in this context quite recently, and on this board

My pet hates are people saying they're on "tenderhooks" or they're "chomping" at the bit
 
Wiggle.

Never noticed anyone say wriggle room before, but I suppose it sounds similar enough that I may have just glossed over it.
 
According to the Google Books Ngram Viewer, both phrases are relatively modern but 'wiggle room' has always been more common and especially recently, its usage far outstrips that of 'wriggle room.'

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surely wiggle room is right as it describes being able to wiggle somthing in a tight fit, whereas wriggle is what a body does to its self...
 
xxlshirts_fit_all said:
surely wiggle room is right as it describes being able to wiggle somthing in a tight fit, whereas wriggle is what a body does to its self...
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Both mean pretty much exactly the same thing surely?

You wriggle out of a contract don't you? Or do you wiggle out of a contract!?

I don't know what to believe anymore 😭
 
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