Cockney rhyming slang.
Comment on How did we get "bike" from "bicycle"?
Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world 6 days ago
I mean, how did we get “Dick” from Richard?
Or “Bill” from “William”?
borari@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 days ago
EndlessNightmare@reddthat.com 5 days ago
And why is there William / Will but no Billiam / Bill?
Rhynoplaz@lemmy.world 6 days ago
Or “Will” from"Billiam"?
Kolanaki@pawb.social 6 days ago
Bill at least has 3 of the first four letters of William. 🤷♂️
LastYearsIrritant@sopuli.xyz 6 days ago
It’s cause there were too many Williams, Richards, and Roberts. They shortened to Will, Rick, and Rob. But there were still too many so they started substituting the first letter.
Now you have Bill, Bob, and Dick.
Those got pretty popular just on their own so now they’re just common shortenings.
toast@retrolemmy.com 6 days ago
Fully agreed, but it bothers me that you changed the order of the resulting names
hakase@lemmy.zip 6 days ago
By asking nicely.