There are plenty of grammatical goofs that happen when we're speaking English. Sometimes we add an "-s" to the end of a word when there isn’t one (such as calling the popular department store “Nordstroms.” Other times, we talk so fast that our words blend together. Usually these mistakes are easily cleared up with a few follow-up questions. Over time, however, these spelling and pronunciation variations can stick around and change language for good. We’ve gathered a few examples that have made a lasting impact on English.

From ‘Eke Name’ to ‘Nickname’

Being given a new name by a friend, teacher, colleague, or family member is often an expression of affection. These names can be shortened versions of first names, such as “Meg” for “Margaret,” or more playful descriptors, like “Peanut.” We call these “nicknames.”

That wasn't always the case, though. Around the early 1300s, “ekename” meant literally “an additional name.” At that time, an ekename was usually given in a derisive manner. Even earlier, “eken” was a verb that meant “to increase, lengthen.” That word has mostly fallen out of use, but it's still present in the phrase “to eke out” (1590s), meaning "to make a supply of something go further or last longer."

So, how did this word meaning “lengthen” turn into the term for a shortened name of endearment? “Nickname” itself is a kind of a nickname — that is, it was created through a linguistic phenomenon called “misdivision,” which is when a word is formed by mistake. Hundreds of years ago, folks used “an ekename,” but that slowly transitioned into “a nekename,” which turned into “a nickname” by the 1530s.

Loanwords and Changing Languages

This process of misdivision and creating new words is a common occurrence with words borrowed from other languages. English speakers using these loanwords may not know the grammatical structure of the original language, which can lead to creating a new word.

Take the word “orange” — interestingly, the color came after the fruit. The citrus fruit is called naranj in Arabic, which became norenge in French. This word went through the same grammatical fusing that “nickname” did; speakers would refer to une norenge (one orange), which slowly turned into une orenge. By the time English speakers started using the word to describe the brightly colored fruits, they called them “oranges.”

Another example is “adder.” This word, used to identify a slithering snake, was “nadder” in 15th-century English and natter in German.

When used in a sentence, “a nadder” slowly changed into “an adder.” The latter word stuck, and has even been modified to refer to different types of snakes, such as a “puff-adder.”

However, the Middle English version hasn’t completely disappeared. It stuck around in northern England, where it is often spelled “nedder.” It’s just another example of the non-standard grammar heard in different dialects across the U.K., and how language continues to evolve over time.

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