I stuck my ground

On the CBS Sunday Morning show last Sunday (12/19/21) soon to be retired National Institute of Health head, Francis Collins, talked about an opinion he held, which then President Trump didn’t care for. Trump tried to dissuade him but, as he said, “I stuck my ground” (see: https://www.cbsnews.com/video/retiring-nih-director-dr-francis-collins/#x; around the 2:23 mark).  This is a congruent conflation of “stuck to my guns” and “stood my ground”, both meaning to refuse to compromise despite criticism. Perhaps Dr. Collins thought the past tense of “stand” is “stuck”. That’s certainly where the confusion lies in this nice malaphor. A big thanks to Martin Pietrucha who heard this one and passed it on.