this post was submitted on 25 Sep 2023
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Memes

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[–] [email protected] 133 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (4 children)

Alas, it does not.

企鵝 is penguin. By itself, 企 means to stand on tiptoes, or to expect something. It's also the first character in 企業, business. Sometimes business is abbreviated as just 企.

But "commitment" in English doesn't literally mean 'commercial glove noun' just because 'com' can be short for commercial, and mit means glove.

[–] RQG 56 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Well at least the world is still a vast hellscape. Unless you got a good point to make against that too.

[–] [email protected] 33 points 11 months ago

Nope, vast hellscape.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 11 months ago (2 children)

In spite of all of our problems, this is the first time in the history of modern civilization when we have gone 70 years without a major war between world powers. Every year, fewer people lack running water and electricity around the world. While climate change is a problem, emissions are projected to peak in the next few years and decline thereafter. Inflation is going back down, unemployment is still low in most places, and fears of a recession have cooled off.

It ain't heaven, but it's better than it could be, and many things are trending in a positive manner.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I, too, am tired of the constant pessimism. Almost everything is improving all the time.

On Lemmy it seems the biggest crisis is Google trying to make money off user data (as they always have been). Some people legitimately need to go outside and stop measuring world health by what mass media is currently telling them.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

If you're using a free product, you're either working with a non profit that survives off of donations or YOU are the product that this company markets to businesses. Nature of the beast

[–] OrteilGenou 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I believed that we went from Napoleon to WW1 without a major conflict but holy crap I guess not

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Yeah the Franco-Prussian, Crimean, and Russo-Ottoman wars stand out

[–] WhiskyTangoFoxtrot 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

There was a bit of a kerfuffle on the other side of the Atlantic during that period, too.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago

A real to-do, that

[–] [email protected] 29 points 11 months ago

Great analogy. I’ll admit I thought you had a stroke mid-sentence.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

Ahem. I'm still on my tiptoes, awaiting the meaning of the second character in "business."

[–] [email protected] 10 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Ugh.. it's business. Chinese does that sometimes. 業 means line of business, trade or occupation.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

And I'm still waiting on the second character of penguin. I'm guessing that's Chinese doing its thing again?

[–] salty_mariner 10 points 11 months ago (1 children)

The second character, 鵝, means goose. So 企鵝 is literally something like, "standing on tiptoes goose". But no one would look at it that closely, to everyone it's just a penguin.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago

Ah, well that all makes sense then.

[–] OrteilGenou 5 points 11 months ago

Tippytoe goose it is

[–] [email protected] 31 points 11 months ago (5 children)

You could do this all day with Vietnamese. Kangaroo is bag mouse. Orca is assassin fish, giraffe is a long-necked deer. Etc.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (5 children)

Dutch has a lot of good ones!

Hippo: Nile Horse (nijlpaard)

Leopard: Lazy Horse (luipaard)

Sea urchin: Sea Hedgehog (zee egel)

Seal: Sea Dog (zeehond)

Skunk: Stink Animal (stinkdier)

Turtle: Shield Toad (Schildpad)

Slug: Naked Snail (Naaktslak)

Porcupine: Spiky Pig (Stekelvarken)

Edit: formatting

[–] [email protected] 10 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Leopard: Lazy Horse (luipaard)

I've looked it up and apparently leo is lion and part is leopard or panther. So it's a lion leopard. English and Dutch have the same etymology, and German too, all your examples are the same in German.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Are you implying that the word for leopard is compounded from the word for leopard???? How did they get the first word for leopard if they didn't have a word for leopard?????

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago

Correction: it's male leopard. It surprised me as well. It's ultimately from Indo-Iranian origin.

https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/pardus#Latin

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago (1 children)

The Dutch are sneaky bastards (stiekemeklootzakken).

[–] WhiskyTangoFoxtrot 5 points 11 months ago

There are only two things I can't stand in this world: People who are intolerant of other people's cultures, and the Dutch.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago

While this is kind of fun, it’s also kind of frustrating. Like when Merriam Webster tries to define a word for me by using the word. Frustrating: having a quality or qualities that frustrates.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago

Hippopotamus comes from the Greek words hippos (horse) and potamos (river). So literally "river horse".

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago

So this is why Indonesian names for hippo, sea urchin and seal are weird af. They are actually direct translation from their dutch names!

[–] CurlyMoustache 2 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Norwegian

Hedgehog: Needle Swine (pinnsvin/

[–] [email protected] 8 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Wow that’s a big bouncing animal! Kind of reminds me of-
“A mouse. Like a big mouse with a bag.”
…Good idea sir.

[–] WhiskyTangoFoxtrot 2 points 11 months ago

Sylvester agrees.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago (1 children)

German has Killerwahl (killer whale) for orca

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago

That's adorable

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Somewhere, out there, there's a language that does NOT have any funny details like this. Those who speak it have the maximum enjoyment potential when learning out.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Enjoy some AI generated business goose

[–] BonesOfTheMoon 2 points 11 months ago

I very much enjoyed this!

[–] Astrealix 23 points 11 months ago (1 children)

It's more like "standing goose"

[–] BonesOfTheMoon 3 points 11 months ago

That's still wonderful though.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 11 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 16 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Goose is literally just "I" and "Bird"

Bussiness iBird

Sounds like a new apple drone that spys on you

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago

That's not how this works. 我 in 鹅 is a phonetic particle, implying yi, (y)e or wo pronunciation (like in 義/义, 俄 and 哦 respectively). 鸟 is a semantic particle, indicating a bird, like in 鳳/凤, 鷹/鹰 or 鴨/鸭

[–] [email protected] 11 points 11 months ago

Tuxedo Scuba Bird

[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Now I’m picturing penguins having nonstop business meetings about fish and vendor relations in Antarctica.

[–] BonesOfTheMoon 5 points 11 months ago

"Hello sir can I interest you in some flounder?"

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