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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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[-] Spzi@lemm.ee 4 points 1 year ago

Electro-pters?

[-] Pyroglyph@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Statopter doesn't sound too bad either. It also implies more heavily that static has something to do with the lift, rather than electricity alone.

Edit: Wait, no, it'd be Statipter. I hate that. Yours was better.

this post was submitted on 16 Oct 2023
701 points (98.6% liked)

Microblog Memes

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