Comment by Biganon
1 hour ago
Funny tidbit: "missile" used to be an adjective, "a missile weapon" = "a weapon than can be sent/thrown".
Same with cereals, "cereal" was an adjective that meant "relative to the goddess Ceres" then "relative to bread/wheat". "Cereal plants" -> cereals.
It's called "nominalization (or substantivization) by ellipsis".
Reminds me of how some people (groups? cultures?) call a lathe a “lathe machine.”
Machine lathe sounds more natural in English, but presumably that qualification may well be to distinguish a machine lathe from a foot lathe.
* https://www.renaissancewoodworker.com/foot-powered-wood-turn...