{"version": "1.0", "type": "rich", "title": "breakfast must have started out as a verb and I bet the first few people to use it as a noun sounded really silly", "author_name": "kontextmaschine", "author_url": "https://kontextmaschine.com", "provider_name": "kontextmaschine", "provider_url": "https://kontextmaschine.com", "url": "https://kontextmaschine.com/post/675678807179608064/", "html": "

adhoption:

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johannesvandergraaff:

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argumate:

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ethnianmandarin:

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house-carpenter:

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argumate:

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breakfast must have started out as a verb and I bet the first few people to use it as a noun sounded really silly

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Actually it did start out as a noun (the noun is attested 1463 and the verb is attested 1679 in the OED). It\u2019s 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.

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breakwater, n.

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1. \u00a0Anything 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.

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1769 \u00a0 \u00a0W. Falconer Universal Dict. Marine \u00a0\n\t\t\t\tBreak-water, the..hull of some old..vessel, sunk at the entrance of a small harbour, to..diminish the force of the waves.

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I am consumed with guilt for propagating a falsehood, or makelie, as I call it.

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It\u2019s a shame when someone has to be the killjoy who brings in the facts.

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saving this post as a keepsake

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