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.

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

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

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.

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

wait until you find out about USB port

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.

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

TIL

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.

I am perfectly WHELMED by this discovery.

… like a seaport, but for the air, dude. Sea. Air. Dude. <Toking noises>

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

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.

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.