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].

  • Treczoks@lemmy.worldEnglish
    16·
    1 year ago

    Hamburgl+(er]

    No, that was soemone else. The city is still called Hamburg, and the inhabitants Hamburger.

        • Daqu@feddit.deEnglish
          4·
          1 year ago

          Ich hab nen Käse auf dem Kopf, ich bin ein Cheeseburger, denn Cheeseburger macht hungriger.

        • JayObey711@lemmy.worldEnglish
          2·
          1 year ago

          Psssh wir wollen nicht schon wieder eine Diskussion über Dialekte lostreten. Hoffen wir mal, dass die ostdeutschen das hier nicht finden