3 ms·
But it isn't "Bob" to "Robert". You skipped middle step, and one final step. First names were shortened. Robert to Rob Richard to Rich William to Will The
by adamzochowski 10y ago
But it isn't "Bob" to "Robert". You skipped middle step, and one final step.
First names were shortened.
Robert to Rob
Richard to Rich
William to Will
Then the shortened version had first letter replaced to make second diminutive form
Rob to Bob
Rich to Dick
Will to Bill
Finally you have third diminutive form, by adding ending
Bob to Bobby
Dick to Dicky
Bill to Billy
- villedespommes 10y agoRussians do this to common nouns too. The short forms of the common nouns are less "common" (sorry for the tautology) in every day speech in English. Exceptions like mommy, daddy, granny, breakie, aside, of course.
- pluma 10y agoKinda like Dutch. I wonder if people from other related languages that don't do this think Russian sounds "cute" because of that (like how Germans often say everything sounds "cute" in Dutch).
- robocat 10y agoRichard to Ric to Dick is mentioned here: http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2012/04/how-dick-came-to-be-short-for-richard/ http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2012/04/how-dick-cam... Also says that dick didn't mean cock until a lot later.
- pluma 10y agoI'm not sure what it says about the English language that common given names also refer to genitalia, money, prostitutes' clients and toilets (e.g. dick, willy, john and so on). Probably nothing, but still pretty awkward as a foreigner. You'd think these names would fall out of style but apparently everybody tries their best to be mature about it.