• ace_garp@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    16
    ·
    10 months ago

    …and when you take a detour, you are getting off your original tour. (Tour de France, tour of the countryside, etc)

    Hence, why you de-tour.

    Did everyone work this out at first glance? The etymology of ‘detour’ took me way too long.

    • oneiros@lemmy.blahaj.zone
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      16
      ·
      10 months ago

      Along these lines, I recently learned:

      Painstakingly is pains + takingly (as in “took great pains”), not pain + stakingly.

      Helicopter is helico + pter (“spiral wing”), not heli + copter.

      In linguistics, this phenomenon is called rebracketing.