Nominalized inflectional morphemes

[Mark A Mandel]

On Sat, 31 Aug 2002, sagehen wrote:

#Speaking of Latin derivations, I remember our ninth grade Latin teacher, in
#urgng us to recognize cognates, assuring us that Ferris  wheels were so
#called because made of iron. She might more plausibly have related ferris
#to the verb /fero, ferre/ as a carrying wheel, I suppose, and still been
#wrong!

             Fe
             ||
             C
            / \
        Fe=C   C=Fe
           |   |
        Fe=C   C=Fe
            \ /
             C
             ||
             Fe

A riddle for chemists, who start to turn red at the impossibility of it.
("ferrous")

-- Mark A. Mandel