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Rebracketing also happened a lot when incorporating words from other languages, from a misunderstanding of the other languages (often the misunderstanding occurred first in another language before being borrowed by English).

"Alligator" is from Spanish "el lagarto" ("the lizard").

Tons of terms from Arabic include "al," the Arabic word for "the":

Alchemy, algorithm, algebra, alfalfa, alkaline, alcohol, alcove.

Rebracketing also leads to some interesting affix/root usage:

The root of "cybernetics" is "cybern," but "cyber" is frequently used to form related words.

"Helicopter" comes from "helix" ("spiral") and "pteron" ("wing"), but it is generally split into "heli"/"helo" and "copter" for the formation of related words.



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