When sedimentary rock such as sandstone & limestone gets buried & subjected to high heat & pressure, it becomes metamorphic rock like schist and marble.

The word ampersand, having been subjected to the heat & pressure of iteration & reiteration by many generations of British school children, was metamorphized from and per se and to ampersand. As they pronounced it, the "d" of the first "and" completely disappeard, and the "n" became "m" due to the influence of the forthcoming "p" of per.

Are there other metamorphic words in English?

...that "ampersand" was "Ampere's 'and'", and now you say it is a compression of "and per se and"...

So which one is the "Urban Myth"?

Getting back to your metamorphic words - can we begin with "Goodbye"? That's supposed to have started as "God be with ye."

An apron?

An orange?

Bloody?

Interesting discussion. I found this on an internet site:

Metamorphic Words - Obsolete words slightly altered, and made current again- as “chestnut” for castnut, from Castana, in Thessaly; “court-cards” for coat-cards; “currants” for corinths; “frontispiece” for frontispice (Latin frontispicium); “Isinglass” for hausen blase (the sturgeon's bladder, Ger.); “shame-faced” for shamefast, as steadfast, etc.; “sweetheart” for sweethard, as drunkard, dullard, dotard, niggard.

quote:

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"ampersand" was "Ampere's 'and'"

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That's a new one on me. Jerry's explanation is the one I'd heard, and the one given at Dictionary.com.

I can't really agree with the definition of "metamorphic words" that Kalleh found, for it's so broad as to encompass any type of changeling -- which means, when you come to think of it, the vast majority of words. (It would exclude only two types: those too new to have changed, and those that have survived unchanged from Olde English.)

Granted that that definition of "metamorphic words" is consistent with the strict meaning of "metamorphic". But I'd say it's more interesting to think of "metamorphic'" used as Jerry does, in terms of "compression". Ampersand has been metamorphed by "compression"; good-bye] has as well; orange and apron changed by a different process, the shifting n.

That said, I'm head-scratching for compression-words. The only one I can think of is the old oath Zounds! (for "God's wounds"), but I suspect there an a multitude of others.

Great topic, Jerry.

Liverpool slang for old ladies is (apparently) twirlies. They get on buses asking, 'is it too early to use my bus pass?'

Innit means lots of things to 1990s children, but originates from isn't it.