95
submitted 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) by someguy3@lemmy.world to c/showerthoughts@lemmy.world

Not actually a shower thought, saw an old document that labeled it air-port. I don't think I would have ever made the connection.

(I've found people can be rude about word breakdowns, but I'm posting it anyway. Be better.)

top 44 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[-] themeatbridge@lemmy.world 62 points 3 months ago

Our best understanding of neurology is like a blank map. As we grow and learn, we discover places on the map. We discover where the feelings on our fingers grow, and how to imitated the noises we hear. We discover the balance and coordination to walk and run and flip. Each place on the map is connected like pathways through a forest. The more we run along the path, the wider and more permanent it becomes.

The true power of the human mind is the ability of language. We have a superpower, to create an infinite number of sounds and shapes that arbitrarily describe an unlimited set of concepts. There are things we never dreamed of that our grandchildren will name, and it is this capacity to observe, remember, and describe things that has given rise to every great human accomplishment.

You learned the word "airport" as a place on your map. You never needed to connect it to the etymological history of the word, so you never needed to walk those paths. They were always there, which is why it seems obvious to you now, and also why a lot of people have the initial inclination to say "duh, of course." That's an expected response.

But we should all appreciate and marvel at the enormity of civilized history that has us here, scribing words on glass and light and copper, sending them instantaneously around the world, to discuss how the place where our flying machines engage in cooperative commerce and transport, how that concept is so mundane that you never even bothered to glance at the constituent words as separate concepts.

This is an amazing world, and we are all marvelous creatures. We are the absolute quintessence of stardust, and our progeny will look back on us as quaint.

Man, these are good drugs.

[-] Wilzax@lemmy.world 10 points 3 months ago

Lucky 10,000

[-] BruceTwarzen@lemm.ee 30 points 3 months ago

Dog food is food for a dog. Wtf is this?

[-] Hugh_Jeggs@lemm.ee 29 points 3 months ago

I once saw sweet n sour sauce in a French supermarket, "sauce aigre-doux"

I looked up aigre to see what it meant and right enough, it just means sour.

At that point it clicked that French for wine is "vin" so sour wine is vin aigre

Or vinegar

[-] Plum@lemmy.world 24 points 3 months ago

I had the same kind of brain fart shower thought about the refrigerator brand Frigidaire.

Frigid+air

The air is cold.

I was in my 30s.

[-] Malfeasant@lemmy.world 19 points 3 months ago

I live in Phoenix, our airport is called sky harbor...

[-] lord_ryvan@ttrpg.network 4 points 3 months ago

Pretty sure they did that on purpose

[-] Malfeasant@lemmy.world 6 points 3 months ago
[-] lurch@sh.itjust.works 19 points 3 months ago

wait until you find out about USB port

[-] Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world 6 points 3 months ago

You mean how you plug it in, oops wrong way.....flip it....no, right the first time, flip it again, ah, there it goes!

Even USB-C

[-] Batbro@sh.itjust.works 19 points 3 months ago

USB-c? Buddy, that might be a you problem

[-] Aggravationstation@feddit.uk 8 points 3 months ago

USB-C these nuts all up in ya business

[-] someguy3@lemmy.world 5 points 3 months ago

USB-Aggravating.

[-] best_username_ever@sh.itjust.works 1 points 3 months ago

Or the washing machine.

[-] niktemadur@lemmy.world 18 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Then the word alphabet comes from alpha and beta, the first two letters of the Greek writing system.
If we had gotten the word directly from the Phoenicians, we might probably call it alephbeth instead.

Just a couple of nights ago it hit me that the word geometry comes from Geo: Earth and metron: measure.

Etymologies can suddenly snap into focus things that have been right there in front of our eyes all our lives, but never thought to notice.

[-] Agent641@lemmy.world 9 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Algebra is an Arabic word. Al-gebra. Presummably it translates to "The Pain"

[-] possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip 2 points 3 months ago

You are going to hate Trigonometry and Calculus

[-] whostosay@lemmy.world 6 points 3 months ago

I've never felt more like the smartest dumbass for realizing one on my own.

[-] niktemadur@lemmy.world 9 points 3 months ago

And why isn't a train station called a rail port?
Missed opportunity to keep it all tidily labeled similarly, if you ask me.

[-] someguy3@lemmy.world 4 points 3 months ago

Hmm there is rail yard just like ship yard, though I think they're used a little differently.

[-] Plopp@lemmy.world 4 points 3 months ago

Train station and bus station. Why isn't it called boat station and plane station?

[-] intensely_human@lemm.ee 5 points 3 months ago

Because a station is a place you pull up to an leave going the same direction, and a port is a place you enter and then go back out the same way.

Airplanes come down to a port, then go back up.

Boats come into a port, then back out to sea.

Buses come into a station, then go along their way. Same as trains.

[-] TheGalacticVoid@lemm.ee 2 points 3 months ago

Buses come from a road and then go back to the same road, so this line of reasoning makes no sense.

[-] intensely_human@lemm.ee 3 points 3 months ago

The buses never leave the road. The station is on the road.

When buses pull into spaces, then back out, it’s called a bus port.

[-] TheGalacticVoid@lemm.ee 1 points 3 months ago

I don't know what bus stations you've been to, but every bus station I've been to was something like an airport. Everything else has been a bus stop.

[-] Plopp@lemmy.world 1 points 3 months ago

Don't come here with logical arguments! :(

[-] Noel_Skum@sh.itjust.works 1 points 3 months ago

Funnily enough in Russian the word for train station is Vauxhall… spelt Russian. People say that Russian engineers studying in London mistook the name of a specific underground station - Vauxhall - as the generic word for station and imported it into their language before anyone realised the mistake.

[-] Crackhappy@lemmy.world 8 points 3 months ago
[-] psilotop@lemmy.world 7 points 3 months ago

I am perfectly WHELMED by this discovery.

[-] Awkwardly_Frank@lemmy.world 7 points 3 months ago

Here I am calling them air fields.

Of course it’s the folks taking it back to the ancient Greek and calling them aerodromes that are on the real next level.

[-] Awkwardly_Frank@lemmy.world 5 points 3 months ago

Side note: port isn’t the only terminology aviation has stolen from seafaring. For example: airspeed is measured in knots. Captain, pilot, and first officer were all used aboard ships first as well.

[-] Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world 4 points 3 months ago

Don't forget mile high club!

.......of coarse, pirates were at sea for months with a boat full of drugs, and no women.

What? You never considered the possibility that old timey pirates were a boat full of gay dudes high off their ass?

Speaking of their asses....

[-] lord_ryvan@ttrpg.network 4 points 3 months ago

Oh! In Dutch they're called that!

Well, they're actually called “vliegveld” (/ˈfliːχ.fɛlt/; vlEEh-vElt); vlieg=fly(ing), veld=field. It's a flying-field!

[-] corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca 7 points 3 months ago

.. like a seaport, but for the air, dude. Sea. Air. Dude.

[-] waz@lemmy.world 1 points 3 months ago

After years of learning Spanish my brother pointed out that the word for umbrella, paraguas, is simply "for water". Similar to how parasol is "for sun".

So obvious, but somehow my brain missed it.

[-] user1234@lemmynsfw.com 1 points 3 months ago

Just wait until you realize where the world alphabet comes from.

[-] intensely_human@lemm.ee 1 points 3 months ago

I just want to say the guy who voices the commercials for Draft Kings Sportsbook has the worst voice I have ever heard.

[-] NorthWestWind@lemmy.world -4 points 3 months ago

The reason people are rude about word breakdowns is they assumed you to be a native English speaker, and these should seem obvious.

The internet is full of Americans, unfortunately.

[-] someguy3@lemmy.world 10 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

I think it's the native speakers that don't break it down. You just take the word as a word because you learned it so young.

[-] NorthWestWind@lemmy.world 0 points 3 months ago

See? This is what happens when I assume you to be non-American. When someone assumes me to be an American, I'm apparently also the wrong one.

this post was submitted on 06 Jul 2024
95 points (73.9% liked)

Showerthoughts

29525 readers
1823 users here now

A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. The best ones are thoughts that many people can relate to and they find something funny or interesting in regular stuff.

Rules

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS