What's some common knowledge that you just found out recently?

Karlillo@lemmy.world to Ask Lemmy@lemmy.world – 119 points –
125

You are viewing a single comment

A pancake is a cake you make in a pan.

It broke my mind when I learned that one

..and when you take a detour, you are getting off your original tour. (Tour de France, tour of the countryside, etc)

Hence, why you de-tour.

Did everyone work this out at first glance? The etymology of 'detour' took me way too long.

Along these lines, I recently learned:

Painstakingly is pains + takingly (as in "took great pains"), not pain + stakingly.

Helicopter is helico + pter ("spiral wing"), not heli + copter.

In linguistics, this phenomenon is called rebracketing.

I never knew those two either.

Love the helico-pter one. Of course!

Well, I'm there with you buddy. This is the first I see it.

1 more...