• hakase@lemm.ee
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    18 hours 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”.

    • JasonDJ@lemmy.zip
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      23 hours 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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        22 hours ago

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