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(Re)bracketing (lemmy.world)
submitted 1 year ago by ReadyUser31@lemmy.world to c/microblogmemes@lemmy.world
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Was slightly mindblown whenl discovered this.

The two parts to the word "helicopter" are not "helil" and "copter", but "helico" meaning spiral, and "pter" meaning one with wings, like pterodactyl.

1044 AM-5Mar 2018 21,200 Retweets 67,241 Lkes

wait WHAT

Aderinthemadscientist: Wait, so... does -copter come "from" helicopter?

108echoes: Yep! This is called rebracketing. Another famous example would be"-burger": the original food item is named after the German city, (Hamburgl+(er], but semantically reinterpreted as (ham]+[burger].

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[-] IntergalacticZombie@feddit.uk 10 points 1 year ago

Does that mean the 'P' was supposed to be silent? You don't say puh-terodactyl without getting laughed at in school... Um, probably!! So, is it a actually called a helicoter?

[-] weirdwallace75@lemmy.world 21 points 1 year ago

So, is it a actually called a helicoter?

No. Language isn't always logical, and that's one way in which it isn't.

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this post was submitted on 16 Oct 2023
724 points (98.7% liked)

Microblog Memes

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