A few more oddities from our use of language (sent to me by the same friend).
You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language in which your house can burn up as it burns down, in which you fill in a form by filling it out, and in which, an alarm goes off by going on.
There is no egg in eggplant nor ham in hamburger; neither apple nor pine in pineapple.
English muffins weren't invented in England or
French fries in France.
Sweetmeats are candies while sweetbreads,
which aren't sweet, are meat.
Quicksand works slowly, boxing rings are square and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig.
If the plural of tooth is teeth, why isn't the plural of booth beeth?
One goose, 2 geese. So one moose, 2 meese?
If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of all but one of them, what do you call it? Is it an odd, or an end?
In what other language do people recite at a play and play at a recital?
Have noses that run and feet that smell?
English was invented by people, not computers, and it reflects the creativity of the human race, which, of course, is not a race at all
No doubt there are lots of other examples, but I`ve bored you enough by now, so I`ll change the subject for tomorrow!
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