<story><title>Why “children,” not “childs”? (2016)</title><url>https://www.grammarphobia.com/blog/2016/03/en-plural.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>LeoPanthera</author><text>I was amazed to discover that oranges used to be called &amp;quot;noranges&amp;quot; but &amp;quot;a norange&amp;quot; was corrupted into &amp;quot;an orange&amp;quot;.</text></item><item><author>justinpombrio</author><text>The book The Unfolding of Language[1] describes the forces that shape how language evolves. One is extending the use of a pattern (e.g. &amp;quot;en&amp;quot; for plural), even in cases like this one where it wasn&amp;#x27;t technically appropriate. Another is the use of metaphor. E.g. &amp;quot;discover&amp;quot; used to mean &amp;quot;to remove the cover of&amp;quot;, but now its meaning is purely metaphorical and the literal meaning has been mostly lost. Another is laziness: slurring long compound phrases together until they&amp;#x27;re effectively one word. A lot of conjugations&amp;#x2F;declentions are a result of this. I recommend this book if you&amp;#x27;re interested in how languages change over time; it&amp;#x27;s very well written.&lt;p&gt;EDIT: Another fun fact is that words sometimes begin to mean their _exact opposite_. For example, &amp;quot;wicked&amp;quot; used to mean &amp;quot;evil&amp;quot;, but in England (and elsewhere, but especially England) it&amp;#x27;s started to mean &amp;quot;sweet&amp;quot;.&lt;p&gt;And there&amp;#x27;s always the great consonant shift:
&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Grimm%27s_law&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Grimm%27s_law&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;[1] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.amazon.com&amp;#x2F;Unfolding-Language-Evolutionary-Mankinds-Invention&amp;#x2F;dp&amp;#x2F;0805080120&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.amazon.com&amp;#x2F;Unfolding-Language-Evolutionary-Manki...&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>yosito</author><text>Oh! That suddenly makes the Spanish &amp;quot;naranja&amp;quot; seem way more connected!</text></comment>
<story><title>Why “children,” not “childs”? (2016)</title><url>https://www.grammarphobia.com/blog/2016/03/en-plural.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>LeoPanthera</author><text>I was amazed to discover that oranges used to be called &amp;quot;noranges&amp;quot; but &amp;quot;a norange&amp;quot; was corrupted into &amp;quot;an orange&amp;quot;.</text></item><item><author>justinpombrio</author><text>The book The Unfolding of Language[1] describes the forces that shape how language evolves. One is extending the use of a pattern (e.g. &amp;quot;en&amp;quot; for plural), even in cases like this one where it wasn&amp;#x27;t technically appropriate. Another is the use of metaphor. E.g. &amp;quot;discover&amp;quot; used to mean &amp;quot;to remove the cover of&amp;quot;, but now its meaning is purely metaphorical and the literal meaning has been mostly lost. Another is laziness: slurring long compound phrases together until they&amp;#x27;re effectively one word. A lot of conjugations&amp;#x2F;declentions are a result of this. I recommend this book if you&amp;#x27;re interested in how languages change over time; it&amp;#x27;s very well written.&lt;p&gt;EDIT: Another fun fact is that words sometimes begin to mean their _exact opposite_. For example, &amp;quot;wicked&amp;quot; used to mean &amp;quot;evil&amp;quot;, but in England (and elsewhere, but especially England) it&amp;#x27;s started to mean &amp;quot;sweet&amp;quot;.&lt;p&gt;And there&amp;#x27;s always the great consonant shift:
&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Grimm%27s_law&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Grimm%27s_law&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;[1] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.amazon.com&amp;#x2F;Unfolding-Language-Evolutionary-Mankinds-Invention&amp;#x2F;dp&amp;#x2F;0805080120&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.amazon.com&amp;#x2F;Unfolding-Language-Evolutionary-Manki...&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>cven714</author><text>Same with &amp;quot;a napron&amp;quot; -&amp;gt; &amp;quot;an apron&amp;quot;</text></comment>