While grading a student's paper the other day, I came across this sentence: "The cost of the U.S. Interstate Highway System was $128.9 billion, all tolled."

Gosh, I hope not. If that's true, my drive down I-84 to New York City is going to be bit more expensive this summer.

What the student meant to write, of course, is "all told," meaning "all added up." But why "told"?

Originally, the verb "tell" meant, not "to narrate," but "to keep track of, to count." That's why we still say a clock "tells" (tracks) time, and why we call a bank clerk who counts money a "teller."

And we still use the past tense of "tell" ("told") to mean "all counted" or "all tallied up." "Tolled," of course, means "having been rung," (as a bell is), or "having been assessed a toll" (as a driver is).

As for the grade on that student's paper, I gave him an E-ZPass.

The use of "all tolled" for "all told" is an example of an "eggcorn" — the substitution of a similar-sounding and somewhat logical word for the correct one. Language expert Geoffrey Pullum coined the term "eggcorn" for such a mistake when he noticed that a writer (who presumably had never seen "acorn" in print) rendered it as "eggcorn."

Because acorns and eggs share an oval shape and a reproductive function, "eggcorn" does sort of make sense.

Other examples of eggcorns include "a pigment of her imagination" (for "a figment of her imagination") and "all intensive purposes" (for "all intents and purposes").

Some eggcorns can create real uncertainty, even among knowledgeable people. For instance, is it ...

—guy wire or guide wire? — Though, in a sense, a wire that stabilizes electrical towers, smoke stacks and other tall structures does act as a kind of guide, the correct term is "guy wire," from the Dutch word "gei," which means "a rope fastened to a sail." (This "guy" is unrelated to the "guy" meaning "a person," derived from the Gunpowder Plotter Guy Fawkes.)

—jerry-rigged or jury-rigged? — It's "jury-rigged." In the British navy, the adjective "jury," meaning "makeshift," was used the describe a temporary, improvised solution, as in a "jury mast."

The adjective "jerry-built," believed to be derived from the first name of an incompetent house builder (yes, we all know such a "Jerry"), means something slightly different: constructed in a slipshod, careless way.

All told, any structure that is jury-rigged or jerry-built probably needs guy wires for support.

Rob Kyff, a teacher and writer in West Hartford, Conn., invites your language sightings. Send your reports of misuse and abuse, as well as examples of good writing, via e-mail to Wordguy@aol.com or by regular mail to Rob Kyff, Creators Syndicate, 737 3rd Street, Hermosa Beach, CA 90254. To read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.