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Some spelling and grammar mistakes change a student’s grade for the worse, others transform the language forever. These 15 common words showcase that some errors are beneficial, as without them, we wouldn’t have such fantastic English words as apron, orange, or sneeze. The saying “to make an omelet you have to break a few eggs” has never been more accurate!
Apron
Like the word cuisine itself, many culinary terms were borrowed into English from French. The word apron is no exception, but somewhere along the way, mistakes were made, and the 14th-century French original – the word naperon – became apron.
This word actually showcases an interesting phenomenon in the English language called “rebracketing.” When a noun begins with "n-," it’s tough to distinguish between “a napron” and “an apron.” As a result, people started spelling the word as apron not napron in all English texts.
Nickname
The word nickname is another example of rebracketing. In 13th-century English, there was the word eke which meant “to add,” “make longer,” or “also.” Someone’s informal name was known as an ekename, which can be literally translated as “also-name.” Over time, the incorrect parsing of “an ekename” evolved into “a neke-name,” and then into “a nickname.” This is how the modern word nickname was born.
There are many other examples of rebracketing in English. Some other common words are: umpire, aught, newt, and adder.
Squeeze
In Old English, the action of firmly pressing or crushing something was to quease – without the usual s- at the beginning. The initial “s” was added later on by mistake. Linguists speculate that this probably happened because squeeze looks similar to other verbs that start with "squ-," such as squat or squint.
Tornado
Borrowing words from other languages often creates confusion. When the Spanish word tronada, meaning “thunderstorm,” was first used by English speakers in the mid-16th century, they must have switched the order of the “r” and “o.”
In phonetics, the linguistic study of sounds, this process of transposition of letters or sounds in a word is called metathesis. Thanks to this misunderstanding, the contemporary word tornado was born.
Scandinavia
Did you know that Scandinavia was initially known as Scadinavia? Opinions regarding this toponym’s origins are divided. Some claim this early name stems from the Old English word for the south of Sweden – Scedenig. Others believe the name is a remnant of the Scadia island, which existed in the region prior to the Mesolithic (10,000-9,500 years ago) when the coastlines in the Baltic Sea changed significantly. As for the current name, the Oxford English Dictionary suggests that the “n” was added when the famous Roman scholar Pliny the Elder accidentally misspelled the word. And the rest is, as they say, history.
Sherry
For the non-sommeliers out there, sherry is a type of fortified white wine from the Jerez region of Spain. The wine is called fortified because it has distilled spirits added to it. In the past, the Spanish port city from which the wine originated was called Xeres. Hence, the local wine became known as vino de Xeres - or “wine from Xeres.”
By the 1530s, the wine’s name morphed into sherris. Unfortunately, the "-s" at the end of the word confused English speakers, who thought it was a plural ending. Consequently, by the 17th century, the name was shortened to just sherry.
Syllabus
The word syllabus is of Greek origin, but it has nothing to do with the word syllable, despite the strong similarity in form. In fact, the term syllabus comes from the Greek word sittybos, meaning "parchment label, table of contents.“
At one point in the 15th century, a scribe made a mistake in this word when copying Cicero's "Ad Atticum," writing syllabus instead. Little did he know, generations of academics would re-type his mistake and use it in every type of academic discipline imaginable. Ironic, isn’t it?
Ingot
An ingot is defined as “a mass of metal cast into a convenient shape for storage or transportation to be later processed.” The term may also refer to the mold used to cast metal, and it comes from the French word lingot.
When the word was borrowed into the English language, some English authors assumed that the “l-” at the beginning refers to the French article le or la abbreviated to l’, so they removed it, leaving only the ingot. Since the word ended up on this list, you probably suspect that chopping off the initial "l-" was indeed a mistake. Still, the rewritten spelling has stuck more than the correct French version, and we still say ingot today.
(II) Proof That English is Quite Bizarre
Edited By: Tony A.
English is the easiest language to learn, mostly because it doesn't make use of male/female for everything, like other languages do. But even as an 'easy language', it doesn't mean it's easy to master, or that it doesn't have some pretty weird features that have made their way into the language with time. Enjoy these 3 examples of why
English is a crazy language!
1. Things that make no sense!
Let's face it - English is a crazy language. There is no egg in eggplant, nor ham in hamburger; neither apple nor pine in pineapple. English muffins weren't invented in England nor French fries in France. Sweetmeats are candies while sweetbreads (which aren't sweet) are meat. We take English for granted. But if we explore its paradoxes, we find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square and a guinea pig is neither a Guinea nor is it a pig...
And why is it that writers write but fingers don't fing, grocers don't groce and hammers don't ham? If the plural of tooth is teeth, why isn't the plural of booth, beeth? One goose, 2 geese. So one moose, 2 meese? One index, 2 indices? Doesn't it seem crazy that you can make amends but not one amend? If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of all but one of them, what do you call it?
If teachers taught, why didn't preachers praught? If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat? Sometimes I think all the English speakers should be committed to an asylum for the verbally insane. In what language do people recite at a play and play at a recital? Ship by truck and send cargo by ship? Have noses that run and feet that smell?
How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and a wise guy are opposites? You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language in which your house can burn up as it burns down, in which you fill in a form by filling it out and in which, an alarm goes off by going on.
English was invented by people, not computers, and it reflects the creativity of the human race, which, of course, is not a race at all. That is why, when the stars are out, they are visible, but when the lights are out, they are invisible.
PS. - Why doesn't 'Buick' rhyme with 'quick'?
2. Words with double meanings
1. The bandage was wound around the wound.
2. The farm was used to produce produce.
3. The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse.
4. We must polish the Polish furniture.
5. He could lead if he would get the lead out.
6. The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert.
7. Since there is no time like the present, he thought it was time to present the present.
8. A bass was painted on the head of the bass drum.
9. When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes.
10. I did not object to the object.
11. The insurance was invalid for the invalid.
12. There was a row among the oarsmen about how to row.
13. They were too close to the door to close it.
14. The buck does funny things when the does are present.
15. A seamstress and a sewer fell down into a sewer line.
16. To help with planting, the farmer taught his sow to sow.
17. The wind was too strong to wind the sail.
18. Upon seeing the tear in the painting I shed a tear.
19. I had to subject the subject to a series of tests.
20. How can I intimate this to my most intimate friend?
3. UP is a very strange word!
There is a two-letter word that perhaps has more meanings than any other two-letter word, and that is 'UP.'
It's easy to understand UP, meaning toward the sky or at the top of the list, but when we awaken in the morning, why do we wake UP?
At a meeting, why does a topic come UP? Why do we speak UP and why are the officers UP for election and why is it UP to the secretary to write UP a report?
We call UP our friends.
And we use it to brighten UP a room, polish UP the silver; we warm UP the leftovers and clean UP the kitchen.
We lock UP the house and some guys fix UP the old car.
At other times the little word has real special meaning.
People stir UP trouble, line UP for tickets, work UP an appetite, and think UP excuses.
To be dressed is one thing, but to be dressed UP is special.
A drain must be opened UP because it is stopped UP.
We open UP a store in the morning but we close it UP at night.
We seem to be pretty mixed UP about UP!
To be knowledgeable about the proper uses of UP, look the word UP in the dictionary. In a desk-sized dictionary, it takes UP almost 1/4th of the page and can add UP to about thirty definitions.
If you are UP to it, you might try building UP a list of the many ways UP is used.
It will take UP a lot of your time, but if you don't give UP, you may wind UP with a hundred or more.
When it threatens to rain, we say it is clouding UP.
When the sun comes out we say it is clearing UP.
When it rains, it wets the earth and often messes things UP.
When it doesn't rain for a while, things dry UP.
One could go on and on, but I'll wrap it UP, for now, my time is UP, so........it is time to shut UP!
And now it's UP to you what you do with this knowledge!