871
submitted 1 month ago by cm0002@toast.ooo to c/funny@sh.itjust.works
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] lvxferre@mander.xyz 8 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

That's a language-dependent ambiguity; this sort of "noun¹ noun²" construction in English is actually rather vague, and it can be used multiple ways:

  • material - e.g. fish fillet (the fillet is made of fish)
  • purpose - e.g. fish knife (the knife is made to handle fish)
  • destination - e.g. fish food (the food goes to the fish)
  • inalienable possession - e.g. fish tail (the tail belongs to the fish, and removing it means removing part of the fish)
  • alienable possession - e.g. fish bowl (the bowl "belongs" to the fish, but you could give it another bowl)
  • etc.

As such I believe that in at least some languages it's probably clear if you refer to chicken egg as "an egg coming from a chicken" or "an egg a chicken is born from". Not that they're going to use it with this expression though.

For reference. @cuerdo@lemmy.world used as an example "my penis":

If I say “my penis”, it is likelier that I am talking about the one attached to me rather than the one I bought in the market.

In Nahuatl both would be distinguished: you'd call your genitals "notepollo" (inalienable possession), and the one you bought "notepol" (alienable possession). (Note: "no-" for the first person. For someone else's dick use "mo-" when speaking with the person, i- when talking about them.)

Just language things, I guess.

[-] cuerdo@lemmy.world 6 points 1 month ago

TIL I learned to refer to my penises (both of them) in Nahuatl, Thank you!!!

[-] lvxferre@mander.xyz 1 points 1 month ago

Relevant to note I don't speak Nahuatl. I parsed this info from Wiktionary + Wikipedia, it's surprisingly easy to follow.

(For the non-possessed form, as in "a penis is an organ", use "tepolli" instead. Wiktionary also mentions "tototl" bird being used with that meaning, kind of like English "cock".)

this post was submitted on 20 Feb 2026
871 points (97.7% liked)

Funny

14439 readers
793 users here now

General rules:

Exceptions may be made at the discretion of the mods.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS