How the Ear Rewrites the Dictionary

   
       The other day I used the word "nickname" in the blog and learned something; in fact, this was the second word I'm aware of formed by the same peculiar circumstance.

       Nickname from Middle English is an alteration of ekename.  Eke means "also" and hence an additional name.  "Nickname" is formed from a misdivision of an ekename.  That little "n" that comes before vowels in such a formation got transferred into a nekename.  Easy to hear how such a change can occur by continual use in connected speech.

       The other word.  "Ought" or "aught" means 0, zero, a cipher.  But it's actually derived from "nought" or "naught."  In Old English na=no and wiht=creature or thing.  A "naught" is a "no thing"; however, "a nought" became "an ought"--this time an "n" subtracted instead of added!