breakfast must have started out as a verb and I bet the first few people to use it as a noun sounded really silly
breakfast must have started out as a verb and I bet the first few people to use it as a noun sounded really silly
Actually it did start out as a noun (the noun is attested 1463 and the verb is attested 1679 in the OED). It’s a standard if relatively infrequent derivational strategy in English: verbnoun = something that verbs noun, although the only other example I can think of right now is pickpocket.
breakwater, n.
1. Anything that breaks the force of the waves at a particular place, esp. a solid structure of rubble and masonry erected to form or protect a harbour, etc.
1769 W. Falconer Universal Dict. Marine Break-water, the..hull of some old..vessel, sunk at the entrance of a small harbour, to..diminish the force of the waves.
I am consumed with guilt for propagating a falsehood, or makelie, as I call it.
It’s a shame when someone has to be the killjoy who brings in the facts.
saving this post as a keepsake