• hakase@lemm.ee
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      1 day ago

      Nope, I can do this all day. Other fun examples of backformation off the top of my head are: “to burgle” from “burglar” (which the Brits still get mad about), originally from the Latin agent noun burglator from the verb burgare; and “cherry”, backformed from Old French cerise, which was reinterpreted as a plural (even though it wasn’t one), and then a new singular form was backformed. The same thing happened to “pea” (though that’s a native English word) - you can still see the original “pease” in the old nursery rhyme: “Pease porridge hot, pease porridge cold, pease porridge in a pot nine days old”.

      • FozzyOsbourne@lemm.ee
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        20 minutes ago

        We don’t get mad about burgle, that’s just a normal word. I do remember thinking I’d gone insane the first time I heard someone unironically use the word “burglarize” to mean “burgle” though!

      • JasonDJ@lemmy.zip
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        2 days ago

        I was making a joke with a modern example of a noun being verbified, but thank you for your insight.

        • hakase@lemm.ee
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          1 day ago

          Oh wow, I’m feeling very whooshed at the moment. Sorry about that.