this post was submitted on 15 Jul 2023
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Today I Learned (TIL)

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TIL the word "apron" comes from the Old French word "napron." Over time "a napron" became "an apron." (en.wikipedia.org)
submitted 1 year ago by bhmnscmm@lemmy.world to c/til@lemmy.ca
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[–] CautiousYellow@lemmy.ca 14 points 1 year ago

orange is the same: "a norange -> an orange", hence "una naranja" in Spanish.

[–] BraveSirZaphod@kbin.social 13 points 1 year ago

Rebracketing is the standard linguistics term for this phenomenon, in case anyone's curious.

[–] madsen@lemmy.world 11 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Similar thing with "a nickname", which came from "an ekename".

[–] ALERT@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 year ago

an a.k.a name

[–] sepiroth154@feddit.nl 3 points 1 year ago

So nickname is a nickname for an ekename, gotcha.

[–] YurkshireLad@lemmy.ca 6 points 1 year ago

Check out the YouTube channel "Rob Words", as he covered this. It was news to me too!

[–] Haus@kbin.social 5 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Similar: 'Nuncle' came from 'mine uncle'.

[–] can@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 year ago

I'm getting Tumblr folk etymology vibes from this.

[–] scott@lem.free.as 1 points 1 year ago

Nope.

It comes from the French 'oncle', from the Latin 'avunculus'.

[–] Hank@kbin.social 4 points 1 year ago

So should we short it down to pron?