"Oxygen" is just "sour stuff" in Greek (or "source of sourness"), bc oxygen gas was discovered through studying acids
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Replying to @arthur_affect
I'm reminded of someone saying Chinese culture was brutal to animals and you can tell bc the word for "animal" is just "thing that moves"
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Replying to @arthur_affect
And I'm like... ok, what do you think "animal" actually means (think "animation")
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Replying to @arthur_affect
English speakers think it's messed up other languages don't distinguish "cow" vs "beef" but it's actually fucked up that we do
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Replying to @arthur_affect
Also interesting which animals we care enough to make that distinction for (we're ok with eating "chicken" rather than "pullet")
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Replying to @arthur_affect
Anyway it is interesting how strongly people react to this distinction, everything sounds more legitimate with classical roots
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Replying to @arthur_affect
Hence Poul Anderson famously making RL basic science sound like fantasy magic by using Anglo-Saxon roots in "Uncleftish Beholding"
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Replying to @arthur_affect
But anyway yeah, that's the deal with calling a movie "cerebral" vs calling it "brainy" when that's the exact same thing
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Replying to @arthur_affect
What's interesting to me is genre fiction doing this deliberately, to use elevated language to imply something is special without saying how
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Replying to @arthur_affect
Like how a "portal" is a door, and therefore languages primarily based on Latin don't have different words for "portal" and "door"
3 replies 4 retweets 9 likes
Or how "artifacts" in fantasy games are special somehow and you know that bc of the word "artifact"
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Replying to @arthur_affect
When "artifact" just means "thing that was made", so most things you use are artifacts
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Replying to @arthur_affect
(I think this usage is linked to RL conspiracy theories about "alien artifacts", claiming natural phenomena are artificial)
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