Same way we get Mike from Micycle.
this post was submitted on 09 Jun 2026
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Bike (n.)
Etymology
Clipping of bicycle. First attested in 1882.
One explanation for the form with /k/ is that bicycle was parsed to bi(cy)c(le). An alternative explanation is that it was parsed to bic(ycle) but since speakers are aware of a general /k/~/s/ alternation (as in electric ~ electricity etc.), the softened /s/ was restored to a default /k/ when the βendingβ -ycle was dropped.[1] Similar cases are merc /mΙΙΉk/, spec /spΙk/ for mercenary, specify. It seems unlikely, however, that this process is purely phonological and not at least partially based on the spelling β¨cβ©.
Brilliant.
My missus is terrible at spelling and she famously misspelled bicycle as bickle on a banner about 20 years ago.
I'm going to show her this.
She also couldn't' spell lettuce or sausage if her life depended on it.
The ol bickle tickle
- Bicycle > Bike
- Motorcycle > Mike
- Tricycle > Tike
- Unicycle > Unike
If the name Mike is a shortened Michael, it's also possible that bike is a shortened Bichael, and that's the proper name. The whole bicycle/bike similarity could be a coincidence.
Tell that to my buddy Micycle, the 3rd.
People do say "trike"
I know silly π
Tricycle > Trike
Motorcycle > Motorbike
Should be Motorke
I prefer the German, Motorrad.
Did you mean Kraftrad?
Well I do now
I know silly π
Do people say bicycle like bi cycle or bi sickle
Also do they say it the same with motor cycle or motor sickle
I think I use the latter but being from NZ, I probably sound like a total degenerate ...
I hope I'm not missing a joke, but if you're curious in my accent (Ontario, Canada) it would basically always be "bi-sickle" and "moter-saikle"
Thank God I never got around to learning the International Phonetic Alphabet, or that might have been too easy and more useful!
I always did bi sickle and motor cycle then I thought about motorsickle and realized it sounded strange
Tricycle > Tike
Trike?
Unicycle > Unike
π€¨
Unicycle -> Unc
ππππ
Bi cycle --> bi ~~cy~~c~~le~~ --> bi ke
Uni cycle --> uni ~~cy~~c~~le~~ --> Eunuch
I'm betting on some language or accent just sort of dropping/mashing syllables together and that pronunciation just kind of catching on or getting passed along to someone else who further mangles to pronunciation until it finally ended up at bike.
Personally, as a Philadelphian, when I say "bicycle" I'm usually not fully saying 3 syllables like "bi-sih-kul" it usually comes out more like "bise-kul"
Take that a step further to maybe something like "bi-kul" and then finally onto "bike"
Probably the same way you got pineapple from Ananas.
So the proposal is that "bicycle" was replaced by something completely etymologically unrelated and that has never been productively used in English? I think that's unlikely.
Eh, it's a fruit that looks like a pinecone and white people are really unimaginative when naming things sometimes. Pineapple
byce
This reminds me of the old bicycling circle jerk sub
I mean, how did we get "Dick" from Richard?
Or "Bill" from "William"?
I mean, how did we get "Dick" from Richard?
By asking nicely and having a thicc ass.
Or "Will" from"Billiam"?
Bill at least has 3 of the first four letters of William. π€·ββοΈ
It's cause there were too many Williams, Richards, and Roberts. They shortened to Will, Rick, and Rob. But there were still too many so they started substituting the first letter.
Now you have Bill, Bob, and Dick.
Those got pretty popular just on their own so now they're just common shortenings.
Fully agreed, but it bothers me that you changed the order of the resulting names
Cockney rhyming slang.
Motion to make Byce the plural form of Bike
Ask the Dutch about dycicles.
Words often abbreviate to their stressed syllables, and occasionally any hard sounds that aren't strictly stressed also follow through. In bicycle these are the "bi" and the hard second c.
Bi(cy)c(le)
The spelling "bike" is unambiguous* for those sounds, so it's the one that stuck.
* Well, relatively. If you're confusedly expecting, say, Greek, you might pronounce those vowels differently.
Bicycle
Bi Cycle
Bi Cyc
Bi Yc
Bike
People still say bicyclette here in france.
Also, apparently the chain bicyclette was invented in Bordeaux (I have no proofs whatsoever).
If you say bicycle with a European accent, it kind of becomes clear. The cy disappears.
Which one?