Comment on How did we get "bike" from "bicycle"?

Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

• hakase@lemmy.zip ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  I mean, how did we get “Dick” from Richard?

  By asking nicely.

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• borari@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  Cockney rhyming slang.

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• Rhynoplaz@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  Or “Will” from"Billiam"?

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• EndlessNightmare@reddthat.com ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  And why is there William / Will but no Billiam / Bill?

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• Kolanaki@pawb.social ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  Bill at least has 3 of the first four letters of William. 🤷‍♂️

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  • LastYearsIrritant@sopuli.xyz ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ 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.

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    • toast@retrolemmy.com ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Fully agreed, but it bothers me that you changed the order of the resulting names

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