this post was submitted on 21 Jun 2023
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Showerthoughts
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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.
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The only reason you're talking, is that we all agree what each word means.
It is neat seeing our agreement on these words change over time. And seeing a few people complaining about words not being used in its original meaning, thinking language is static. And cursewords going from taboo to common usage.
Did you know shark (most likely) comes from the dutch word schurk (meaning bad guy/villain/scoundrel)? Which is where Loan Shark comes from, not from the fish. And the fish was called Haye or Dogfish? At some point the english speaking people decided that the fish should be called "bad guys". Meanwhile, here in Norway we kept both the words "skurk" and "hai" from the dutch, in its original meaning.
I wish I found this so fascinating back when I was still in school and could have taken that path.