• Kitathalla@lemy.lol
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    1
    ·
    edit-2
    1 hour ago

    In the defense of the ancients who were naming things like other things they sort of looked like… what OTHER substance was around at that time that was both white and liquid?

    Because maybe we should be grateful for the milk metaphor instead of the option that only nuts would choose…

    \ >.> Would you rather it be called after dough?

  • stebo@lemmy.dbzer0.com
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    35
    ·
    9 hours ago

    In German and Dutch it’s way worse: “Säugetier” and “zoogdier”. Both can roughly be translated to “sucking animals”. I was taught in school that it’s called that because babies suck on the mother’s breasts to be fed and this is a unique trait to mammals. So in conclusion, we all suck.

  • yarr@feddit.nl
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    8
    ·
    8 hours ago

    I’ve always thought my defining characteristic was my nipples.

  • pocopene@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    10
    ·
    edit-2
    8 hours ago

    Just wait till you know the etymology of mastodon: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mastodon

    Edit to save a click: "A mastodon, (from Ancient Greek μαστός (mastós), meaning “breast, and ὀδούς (odoús) “tooth”)”

    Edit 2: the “mast” in “mastodon” is the same one as in “mastectomy”

  • Im_old@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    104
    ·
    15 hours ago

    I had to scroll back in my saved posts to a million years ago to resurrect this.

    • ✺roguetrick✺@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      edit-2
      2 hours ago

      That metaphor (breasts as fruit) transcends language though. Whatever you call fruits you’ll end up calling breasts. Here’s the song of Solomon which was semetic.

      I said, ‘I will go up to the palm tree; I will take hold of the boughs thereof.’ Now also thy breasts shall be as clusters of the vine, and the smell of thy nose like apples.

      Instead of viewing things like this etymologically, it’s better to see them as universal metaphors that transcend language and culture. Similar to light and darkness.

  • sik0fewl@lemmy.ca
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    32
    ·
    14 hours ago

    Ackshully, “galaxy” (or rather, “galaxias”) means “Milky Way” already, it’s just a translation. It was less ambiguous when the only galaxy we could see was the Milky lights that covered a lot of our sky.

    Of course, we realize there’s more than one galaxy now, so the meanings have diverged.