In English, "butterfly" is made up of "butter" and "fly," which doesn't really make sense. In French, a kite is called a "cerf-volant" (literally "flying deer").
Do you have any similar examples in your language?
I especially love Xerxes
I so sure it was spelled with an R, like perjorative, I even said it that way, I can’t believe I’m only finding this out now. I can already tell it’s going to take an annoyingly long time to memorize it the correct way. Sometimes I’m like “oh I don’t really have dyslexia, I’m a writer and I love reading” and then fucking pejorative comes to punch me in the face.
Uxorious: (adjective) having or showing a great fondness for one’s wife [from Erehwon by Samuel Butler]
Cumbrous: (adjective) cumbersome [ibid]
Prizeman: (noun) a winner of a prize, especially an academic one [ibid]
Congener: (noun) a thing or person of the same kind or category as another [ibid]
Borborygmi: (noun) the sound of your tummy rumbling [from 222 QI Answers]
example of it used in a sentence:
"The patient fell into an incognitive state and required an advance directive."
Ethology: (noun) the study of the behaviour of non-human animals [from the Wikipedia entry for Jane Goodall]
Abject: (adjective) (of a person or their behaviour) completely without pride or dignity [from Erehwon by Samuel Butler]
Importunate: (adjective) persistent to the point of annoyance [ibid]
Ill grained: (adjective) ill natured [ibid]
Scarifier: (noun) a specialized garden tool with rotating steel blades or tines used to remove dead moss, thatch, and debris from the surface of the grass [from The Martin Lewis Podcast]
Tup: (noun) male sheep used for breeding [from the BBC TV programme This Farming Life]
Chopsy: (adjective) excessively talkative, mouthy, or argumentative in an irritating or disrespectful way [from this post https://www.reddit.com/r/onlyconnect/s/A45WdKqQ63]
The two words "prosthesis" and "prosthetic" are closely related, the noun and adjective versions of the same idea. So it's an odd phenomenon that the adjective is widely known and used, while the noun is largely the domain of medical professionals.
Of course it isn't wrong to use an adjective as a noun -- people are always saying things like "The blue car was in the shop so we drove the gray." But it's funny that most people without formal medical training never use the noun, even when it would flow more naturally, as in the Onion's fake headline "'Digger' Prosthetic Artist Recalls Grueling Process Of Having Tom Cruise Sit Still" (which makes it sound like it was the artist, rather than the foam-rubber face makeup, that was fake).
"Prosthesis" is a tricky word, so you wouldn't expect everybody to know it. But if you've mastered "prosthetic", you've handled the hard parts anyway -- like that "sth". So it's not at all like the pattern of doctors saying "myocardial infarction" while laypeople say "heart attack". I find it a bit of a mystery.