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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".

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> Funny tidbit: "missile" used to be an adjective, "a missile weapon" = "a weapon than can be sent/thrown".

Related bit of comedy:

> Note also that the correct term for 'a missile to be deployed against "anti-missile missiles"' is not "anti anti-missile missile." It's "anti anti-missile-missile missile." You're always supposed to have one more "missile" than "anti," because otherwise nothing will blow up.

-- https://www.schlockmercenary.com/2005-03-16

I wonder how often *teleports behind you* shows up in space operas.

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...

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