Comments on: All told

By: Brendan

Brendan — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 18:03:49 +0000

Mike,

You are arguing against toll as meaning count, but then don’t support the use of told instead.

Using your argument, nobody ever says “when the bodies were told” either, nor do they say “we told the dead bodies and there were 80 of them.”

Do we?

Brendan

By: Brendan

Brendan — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 17:53:04 +0000

and you pay a toll based on the number of vehicles or axles, or weight…

The toll to ferry sheep across a river was based on the number of sheep in the herd, etc. So using toll as an indication of counting, as in “all counted up” seems perfectly correct to me and those who use “all told” are just unaware that the word is spelled “tolled.”

By: AnWulf

AnWulf — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 01:14:00 +0000

Good answer Mike!

Soothly, I’d never seen it as “all tolled” before reading this.

By: AnWulf

AnWulf — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 01:11:43 +0000

Don is correct. It is “home in” not “hone in”. You can hone your skills but you home in on a target. Aircraft follow homing beacons.

By: Mandes

Mandes — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 19:38:55 +0000

Fascinating. I am about to send an email with the expression in question and still am not sure whether to use told or tolled, although I am leaning toward told since I find tolled to be pretentious.
Furthermore, eggcorn is not a true eggcorn. Using eggcorn for acorn results from the mispronunciation of egg as Aig, i.e., the long-A sound. Egg should be pronounce with the short e, ehgg. Then there is no confusion, because nobody, but nobody says ehcorn for acorn. (P.s., somepeople say Laig for leg. A good example of this is the Jeff Bridges character in “The Door in the Floor,” which I highly recommend)

By: Jonnie

Jonnie — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 07:36:21 +0000

Call me wind because I am albsoutley blown away.

By: Janice

Janice — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 01:18:40 +0000

Just an additional thought. Why not just use “in toto” in lieu of “all tol…..”? Works for me.

By: Janice

Janice — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 01:15:49 +0000

Yikes!!! I have to agree with Harold Ethington from his June 24th, 2009 comment. Let me guess. If he hadn’t specifically said Kentucky, I would have sworn that his folks were from New England. Regardless, this is such a conundrum that I think I shall refrain from using this saying in any written form. Too bad, though. I always liked it. At least I can still use it in oral encounters and no one will be able to judge my useage/spelling.

By: Don

Don — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 13:22:22 +0000

Ah, but it is “home in.” William Safire said so, even though candidate George W. Bush used “hone in.” Which would you prefer as your word expert?

By: Janet

Janet — Sat, 30 Jul 2011 22:20:12 +0000

All told, I’m with you.

By: susan

susan — Sat, 04 Jun 2011 22:37:55 +0000

I am a court reporter and would just like to thank you for the clarification. I will have your website in my favorites, as these type of problems come up in my depositions daily.

By: Luke D

Luke D — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 21:07:06 +0000

Once upon a time, “google” was just a noun. I can appreciate that this will make the purists cringe (I for one refuse to accept “fantabulous” or “ginormous” into my vocabulary), but I’m going to verb toll.

Toll
-verb
1. To count. Origin -> 5 minutes ago
ex. “I told y’all to toll them taters so as we knows how much vittles we’ll have for supper.”

So maybe “all tolled” is wrong now, but let’s give it some time and google it again in ten years.