Accidental words
The English language is chock-full of words that were born out of errors. Read on to find out which everyday terms started out by mistake.
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Apron
Back in the Middle Ages, the French called this protective cooking gear a naperon. But once English speakers adopted the word, the phrase “a napron” often blended together when people said it out loud. As a result, “a napron” became “an apron,” instead – and we have spelled it that way ever since.
Here are 18 words for things you didn’t even know had names.
Algorithm
The original Medieval Latin version of this word, algorismus, was named after a famous Arab mathematician. But the term is actually just a bad translation of his last name, al-Khwarizmi.
Here are 10 more accidental discoveries that changed the world.