7 Words that Came About from People Getting Them Wrong
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- PEA
Originally the word was “pease,” and it was singular.The sound on the end was reanalyzed as a plural ‘s’ marker. - CHERRY
The same thing happened to “cherise” or “cheris,” which came from Old French “cherise” and was reanalyzed as a plural. So the singular “cherry” was born. - APRON
Originally “napron” often enough as “an apron” that by the 1600s the “n” was dropped. - UMPIRE
Umpire lost its ‘n’ from the same sort of confusion. Orinally nompere, the n-less form won out. - NEWT
A newt was originally an “ewt” - with “an” thus it became the “newt.” - NICKNAME
The ‘n’ also traveled over from the “an” to stick to “nickname,” which was originally “ekename,” meaning “added name.” - ALLIGATOR
Alligator came to English from the Spanish explorers who first encountered “el lagarto” (lizard) in the New World.
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