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Previous Thread Next Thread Print Thread Metathesis #26799 04/16/2001 7:17 PM Joined: Mar 2000 Posts: 142 Wordsmith member Wordsmith member Joined: Mar 2000 Posts: 142 When you hear someone pronouncing "ask" as "aks" or "pretty" as "purty", do you find yourself looking down your nose? Not so fast! What you're witnessing is the English language busy at work, mutating, evolving, and refurbishing its wordstock, making things easier to pronounce. Known as metathesis, it is the same process that gave us dirt (from drit) and curd (from crud!). If you ever used the word flimsy, you did it: the word is the metathesized form of the word filmsy. It is somewhat like our friend spoonerism, except that here the letters or sounds get transposed within the same word. Many everyday words appear in a form created by such interchange of letters: the word bird came from Old English brid, third from thridda. Going back to "ask," here is an interesting twist. The word "ask" itself came from Old English forms acsian and ascian that co-existed. Eventually the latter won over and became standard. So what we are seeing here is history repeating itself. A few hundred years and who knows, we may be exhorting, "Aks not what your country can do for you ..." This week we'll look at a few more words that are metathetic forms of former words. Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Share Post on Reddit Re: Metathesis #26800 05/26/2001 1:39 AM Joined: Dec 2000 Posts: 12 Earth lastday stranger lastday stranger Joined: Dec 2000 Posts: 12 Earth OK so here's what your saying, when my mom say's purty instead of pretty she's just contribuating to the evolution of a living language, and I should look down on her? How annoying! just when I thought I had found out that mothers are not always right. Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Share Post on Reddit Re: Metathesis #26801 05/28/2001 5:08 AM Joined: Apr 2000 Posts: 3,065 Jakarta Bingley Carpal Tunnel Bingley Carpal Tunnel Joined: Apr 2000 Posts: 3,065 Jakarta In reply to: I should look down on her Only if you're considerably taller than she is. Bingley Bingley Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Share Post on Reddit Re: Metathesis #26802 05/28/2001 11:14 AM Joined: Dec 2000 Posts: 1,055 Berlin belligerentyouth old hand belligerentyouth old hand Joined: Dec 2000 Posts: 1,055 Berlin > Only if you're considerably taller than she is. Or if she were seated Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Share Post on Reddit Moderated by  Jackie  Hop To General Topics ------  Information and announcements  Q&A about words  Wordplay and fun  Words and languages in schools  Miscellany  Weekly Themes  Looking for (writers, speakers,... (Old) Weekly themes. (have been... ------  Words from medicine  Beheading words  Meta-words  Words from classical mythology  Animal Safari  Words with unusual etymologies  Eponyms or words derived from p...  Loanwords from German  English as a global language Print Thread Switch to Threaded Mode Show Likes Link Copied to Clipboard View Profile Private Message Website Follow User Forum Posts Like Summary View Profile Private Message Website Follow User Forum Posts Like Summary View Profile Private Message Follow User Forum Posts Like Summary View Profile Private Message Follow User Forum Posts Like Summary Forum Statistics Forums16 Topics13,915 Posts230,273 Members9,208 Most Online4,606 Sep 17th, 2025 Newest Members JerryC, blvd, Tony Hood, Wood Delivery, Forix Richard 9,208 Registered Users Top Posters(30 Days) wofahulicodoc 26 A C Bowden 7 handymanhome 1 Tony Hood 1 Forix Richard 1 John Flex 1 John Fox 1 JerryC 1 Wood Delivery 1 Trusted Roofing 1 Top Posters wwh 13,858 Faldage 13,803 Jackie 11,613 wofahulicodoc 11,131 tsuwm 10,542 LukeJavan8 9,974 Buffalo Shrdlu 7,210 AnnaStrophic 6,511 Wordwind 6,296 of troy 5,400

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