Tag: metathesis
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Winter Olympics sport word origins, Part II: sleigh, bobsled, curling, hockey
Sliding vehicles, little tails, curving paths, and probable hooks
John Kelly -
tornado
Fast Mash Tornado is first attested as ternado in the late 16th-c. First referred to tropical Atlantic thunderstorms; sense of rotating funnel clouds came about in 1700-1800s Probably a bad borrowing by navigators/seamen/travelers from Spanish tronada (thunderstorm, related to English thunder) Later forms flipped the o and the r, probably under the influence of Spanish tornar (turn, related to English turn) One thing is certain: A…
John Kelly
Mashed Radish 