15 real words that were invented by accident

This word came from the French term “nompere,” or “one without equal.” But because the sounds blurred together when spoken out loud, “a noumpere” ended up becoming “an oumpere,” later forming the word we now know as umpire.

This word is actually a mistaken rendering of the Spanish term “tronada,” which means “thunderstorm.” Over time, speakers accidentally switched the “r” and “o,” creating the modern word tornado.

The verb expediate, which means “to hasten” or “to complete something promptly,” is believed to have been invented when English politician Sir Edwin Sandys misspelled expedite – meaning “ready for action” or “alert” – in an essay he wrote in the early 1600s. While the essay was later corrected, the spelling stuck.

The Middle French phrase Culpable, prest d’averrer nostre bille – translated as “guilty, ready to prove our case” – was what the Clerk of the Crown would say in response to a defendant’s “not guilty” plea. Court records, however, often shortened the long phrase to “cul. prit.” So when push comes to shove, what started out as a lazy abbreviation eventually created the word culprit.

Defined as “a brick-like solid mass of metal,” an ingot was originally called “lingot” in French. But when it was translated into English, some writers removed the letter L, believing it was the French abbreviation for “the.” They were wrong, of course, but the spelling has remained that way ever since.

Scandinavia has not always been this region’s title. At one time, its name did not include the first N, so it read as “Scadinavia.” The Oxford English Dictionary claims that a Roman scholar mistakenly added the extra N, and the rest is history.

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Source: RD.com