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madaxe_againtoday at 6:52 AM1 replyview on HN

We call them “spiral staircases” yet rarely do they actually contain a single spiral - but they do have a helix. I guess “helical staircase” was just too much for people to care about as the term embedded in the 1600s. Previously they’d been winding stairs, screw stairs, and earlier yet just a “vice”, so common were they. Weird how language adapts to what’s easy rather than what’s correct.


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cheschiretoday at 9:40 AM

If some language conveys meaning successfully, it ultimately doesn’t matter what the rules are.

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