342
Shhh! Nobody tell them about "inside out."
Don't tell them about insid-- dang! Too late
Why isn’t it outside in?
It could be to do with something called “ablaut reduplication”. Very basically English has a - kind of - untaught sound order that native speakers inherently apply to the language. Wikipedia will have an article to explain it better. Specifically the vowel order I-A-O. A great example is the phrase “Bish bash bosh” which is getting coverage recently. (One notable exception is “shit, shower, shave” but that is probably down to the chronology of the actions.)
load more comments
(1 replies)
Kif! We have a conundrum!
How else would one interpret it?
It's not really that I interpret it in another way, but I never really thought about the structure of the word 😅
Go further. For example, people say 'gypped' without knowing it's a pejorative reference to the word 'Gypsy' which is itself a pejorative of the Romani.
My favorite recently is sophist from the pejorative Platonic definition. It really puts words like sophisticated in a different etymological light and subtle contextual meaning.
load more comments
(5 replies)
I’ve had similar realizations about words like “across” and “again”.
load more comments
(3 replies)
I think the pronunciation, specifically the blending of the end of "upside" and beginning of "down", turns it into one of those compound words that your brain interprets as an independent word, rather than a combination of its composite parts.
Unused to wonder if the radio announcers that are always reciting the station call letters found that the letters stopped sounding like individual sounds, and the whole recitation became a sort of "word" for them. Like "You're listening to 102.9FM WBLM!" Did it stop being "double-you bee ell emm," and turn into more of a mashup of "dubbleyabeeyelmm"?
True, the difference is pretty subtle, especially to a listener, but I wonder strange things sometimes...
load more comments
(1 replies)
load more comments
(1 replies)
Now explain why some people are "down for things" while others are "up for it"
load more comments
(1 replies)
Wait until you find out “bottoms up” isn’t about a group of people taking an elevator to get mimosas
load more comments
(1 replies)
Brave of you to post this
Good grief...
TIL that people didn't get this. I had a similar situation where I would pronounce unleaded as unleeded
Oh, I used to do this all the time. You see a word in print, but you never hear anybody say it, so you wind up pronouncing it wrong.
I think the best was when I pronounced "misled" as my-seld because I thought it was the past tense of "misle".
load more comments
(1 replies)
Does "right-side up" mean the right side is up or the "right" side is up? English does not make sense
also hi binette
Right = correct
"The correct side is up"
I agree, English is a mess.
load more comments
(4 replies)
Always funny to see native speakers discover trivial facts about their language
load more comments
(1 replies)
I'm my language it's "bottom up" (ondersteboven).
Also came to a similar realization in my language with "averechts", which means the other way around.
Rechts = right (side, from my pov)
Averechts = ave ( dialect for "your") right side.
You're basically communicating "my right or your right". Asking for right or left can be done by saying rechts or averechts.
Also besides ondersteboven and averechts, we have achterstevoren, which means back side in front.
load more comments
(6 replies)
This reminds me of the time I had a co-worker tell me "That's why they call it 'work'. 'Cause you're working!"
load more comments
(1 replies)
The opposite of "upside down" is not "downside up", but "right-side up".
The opposite of "right-side up" is not "left-side down", but "upside down".
Ladies, gentlemen, and all in between. The English language.
The up side is the right side. The down side is the wrong side. Quite logical to me
load more comments
(1 replies)
Once you get a handle on inside out you can check out this ok go song
load more comments
(1 replies)
The letter W is both called "double-U" and looks like two letter Us combined (in some curvy fonts at least)
In my language it's called double-v, which makes so much more sense to me.
Apparently "W" was originally written as "uu" as early as ~600AD, hence the name, however it still used Latin/Roman letters which hadn't yet distinguished between u and v as letters. For at least 700 years, u and v appear to have been considered the same and interchangeable (so "Double U " could look like "uu" or "vv") but it depends on your language whether it was verbally called a "U" or a "V" until the first recorded distinction between the two in a Gothic era alphabet written in 1386. The two apparently did still see some overlap in use until about the 1700s with the turning point appearing to be when the distinction between their capital forms was accepted by the French Academy in 1726.
tl;dr: "Double U" predates the distinction between "U" and "V" so it's up to chance which letter a language called it before it stuck.
Even moreso if you consider the old Latin alphabet that used V and didn’t have U.
load more comments
(1 replies)
Holy shit does that mean that inside out means the inside is out? 🤯
And then someone tries that again with "Just realized that "downside up" means "the down side is up", making it downside up" to see if it makes anymore sense.
Heh good insight.
(Ps I also have these thoughts about breaking words down (unicorn is uni-corn) and some people get really snarky about it. Don't let bad comments get to you.)
In-sight
load more comments
(2 replies)
Wonder if OP thinks "right side up" means the left side is down
Glad you finally made it to the party! Meaning we’ve all been having a party that you just made it to.
view more: next ›
this post was submitted on 15 Jun 2024
342 points (87.7% liked)
Showerthoughts
29202 readers
916 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
- All posts must be showerthoughts
- The entire showerthought must be in the title
- Posts must be original/unique
- Be good to others - no bigotry - including racism, sexism, ableism, homophobia, transphobia, or xenophobia
- Adhere to Lemmy's Code of Conduct
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS