{"id":4056,"date":"2020-07-03T13:21:49","date_gmt":"2020-07-03T13:21:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kinneybrothers.com\/blog\/?p=4056"},"modified":"2024-04-20T16:58:48","modified_gmt":"2024-04-20T16:58:48","slug":"fun-facts-60-rebracketing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kinneybrothers.com\/blog\/blog\/2020\/07\/03\/fun-facts-60-rebracketing\/","title":{"rendered":"Fun Facts About English #60 &#8211; Rebracketing"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.kinneybrothers.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" height=\"702\" width=\"702\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/kinneybrothers.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/060.jpg?resize=702%2C702&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Fun Facts About English 60 Kinney Brothers Publishing\"\/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;A napron&#8221; becoming &#8220;an apron&#8221; wasn&#8217;t an anomaly.   This kind of rebracketing has happened again and again in our language history.  Here are five similar examples:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>an ewt (salamander) \/ a newt<\/li><li>an ekename (additional name) \/ a nickname<\/li><li>an otch \/ a notch<\/li><li>a naranj \/ an orange<\/li><li>a naddre (type of snake) \/ an adder<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>These may seem like quaint misinterpretations from long ago.  In reality, this kind of rebracketing is happening before our very eyes and ears, in spite of the fact that we rely less on an oral transfer of language.  Our higher literacy rates seem to <em>accelerate<\/em> how we (sometimes intentionally) manipulate our language and, in turn, create strings of new words in the process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Take for example the Middle English words <em>all one<\/em> or <em>alone<\/em>, meaning &#8220;one only&#8221; or &#8220;on one&#8217;s own.&#8221; When the word rebracketed to <em>a-lone<\/em>, a profusion of new vocabulary entered the English language, such as <em>lone<\/em>, <em>lonely<\/em>, and <em>lonesome<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Consider the word <em>helicopter<\/em>.  To most English speakers&#8217; thinking, the two parts of the word are <em>heli<\/em> and <em>copter<\/em>.  This is not correct.  Coined in 1861, the etymology of the word originates from the Greek <em>helico<\/em> (spiral) and <em>pter<\/em> (with wings, as in <em>pter<\/em>odactyl).  Nonetheless, we now have derivatives of this rebracketing, like <em>heli<\/em>pad, <em>heli<\/em>port, and <em>heli<\/em>dome.  <em>Copter<\/em>, which wasn&#8217;t a word, suffix, or even slang before <em>helicopter<\/em>, gives us new combinations like gyro<em>copter<\/em>, jet<em>copter<\/em>, and quad<em>copter<\/em>.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A more recent arrival is <em>blog<\/em>.  The internet-era word came from the clever rebracketing of &#8220;weblog.&#8221;  Its cousin, <em>vlog<\/em>, came from the words &#8220;video log.&#8221;  From these newly-coined terms we get <em>blogger<\/em>, <em>blogging<\/em>, <em>vlogger<\/em>, and <em>vlogging<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A popular rebracketing has occurred with the word <em>alcoholic<\/em>.  The two parts of the word are <em>alcohol<\/em> (booze) and <em>-ic<\/em> (related to).  Though &#8211;<em>holic<\/em> has no etymological history, <em>per se<\/em>, it is now a suffix with the definition of &#8220;being addicted to something,&#8221; such as shopa<em>holic<\/em>, choco<em>holic<\/em>, and worka<em>holic<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Finally, our beloved American hamburgers are a linguistic carnival of misinterpretations and rebracketing.  If asked, many Americans would probably think the breakdown of the word hamburger (ignoring any cognitive dissonance) would be ham (meaning &#8220;not really ham&#8221;) and burger (a patty of meat or meat sandwich).  From these misinterpretations, we get new words and food like a cheese<em>burger<\/em>, double <em>burger<\/em>, and veggie<em>burger<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The real meaning of <em>hamburger<\/em> is &#8220;a resident of the German town of Hamburg;&#8221; <em>Hamburg<\/em> + <em>-er<\/em> (resident of). Denizens of this burg gave us our meat sandwich progenitor, the <em>Hamburg<\/em> steak.  When Germans arrived in America, their spicy Hamburg steaks were sold in restaurants, state fairs, and on food carts to industrial workers.  Difficult to eat while standing or walking, the beef patty was sandwiched between two pieces of bread, and the <em>hamburger<\/em> was born.  While there are numerous competing stories, it&#8217;s said that <em>Louis&#8217; Lunch<\/em>, a small lunch wagon in New Haven, Connecticut, sold the first Hamburg steak sandwich around 1900. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And the rest is global history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you enjoyed this post, you may also be interested in how <a href=\"https:\/\/kinneybrothers.com\/blog\/blog\/2020\/10\/30\/fun-facts-82-stacked-adjectives\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">we unconsciously stack our adjectives<\/a>, the <a href=\"https:\/\/kinneybrothers.com\/blog\/blog\/2020\/11\/01\/fun-facts-85-reduplication\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">anomaly of &#8220;The Big Bad Wolf,&#8221;<\/a> or how Lewis Carroll gave us <a href=\"https:\/\/kinneybrothers.com\/blog\/blog\/2020\/03\/20\/fun-facts-49-portmanteau\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">the first literary portmanteaux<\/a>!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-pale-cyan-blue-background-color has-background\">See the <a aria-label=\"undefined (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/kinneybrothers.com\/blog\/blog\/2020\/06\/26\/fun-facts-59-spanish-alligator\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">previous<\/a> or <a href=\"https:\/\/kinneybrothers.com\/blog\/blog\/2020\/07\/10\/fun-facts-61-clusivity\/\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"undefined (opens in a new tab)\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">next<\/a> <strong>Fun Facts About English<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.teacherspayteachers.com\/Store\/Donalds-English-Classroom\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/kinneybrothers.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/HEADER_GIF.gif?w=702&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Donald's English Classroom\"\/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Stories For Young Readers<\/em> lesson packs are available for download as individual lessons or <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.teacherspayteachers.com\/Product\/ESL-Readings-and-Exercises-Book-1-Bundle-3403452\" target=\"_blank\">bundled<\/a> together!  Each lesson pack includes readings, exercises, puzzles, answer keys, and audio files!  Click here to download the first lesson pack from <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.teacherspayteachers.com\/Product\/ESL-Readings-and-Exercises-Book-1-1-407152\" target=\"_blank\">Book 1<\/a> or <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.teacherspayteachers.com\/Product\/ESL-Readings-and-Exercises-Book-2-1-416342\" target=\"_blank\">Book 2<\/a> for free!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;A napron&#8221; becoming &#8220;an apron&#8221; wasn&#8217;t an anomaly. This kind of rebracketing has happened again and again in our language history. Here are five similar examples: an ewt (salamander) \/ a newt an ekename (additional name) \/ a nickname an otch \/ a notch a naranj \/ an orange a naddre (type of snake) \/ [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4528,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[94],"tags":[20,584,1035,561,11,568,474,1034,1031,1038,1032,1037,1036,1033,607],"class_list":{"0":"post-4056","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fun-facts-about-english","8":"tag-donalds-english-classroom","9":"tag-english-language-history","10":"tag-evolution-of-language","11":"tag-historical-linguistics","12":"tag-kinney-brothers-publishing","13":"tag-language-change","14":"tag-language-development","15":"tag-language-manipulation","16":"tag-linguistic-misinterpretations","17":"tag-linguistic-rebracketing","18":"tag-modern-english","19":"tag-new-vocabulary","20":"tag-origin-of-words","21":"tag-word-etymology","22":"tag-word-origins","23":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/kinneybrothers.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/060.jpg?fit=1252%2C1252&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8GlQB-13q","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kinneybrothers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4056","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kinneybrothers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kinneybrothers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kinneybrothers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kinneybrothers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4056"}],"version-history":[{"count":52,"href":"https:\/\/kinneybrothers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4056\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11019,"href":"https:\/\/kinneybrothers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4056\/revisions\/11019"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kinneybrothers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4528"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kinneybrothers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4056"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kinneybrothers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4056"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kinneybrothers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4056"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}