this post was submitted on 13 Nov 2024
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Science Memes

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nighttime pollinator gang rise up (mander.xyz)
submitted 2 weeks ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

I didn't even know disliking moths was a thing until recently.

Guess why? In French they are called "night butterflies". It's just a nocturnal butterfly so of course it's brown, duh.

This feels like the Orca/Killer Whale debate again. Why do the English give such terrible names to animals like they're trying to give children nightmares?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

What do mean regarding terrible names? "Moth" isn't inherently a bad name; any negative connotations of the word come from the creature itself.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

The phonology of "moth" is just bad (not just subjectively but in a way that I'm sure linguists could pick apart). It's adjacent to "moist". That's the kind of name you give something you don't like, a name made to be spat out. Contrast to other monosyllabic names like "fly", a decidedly more despicable insect but with a much prettier name. Which one would be easier to use in a song?

Also I just checked and moths are butterflies, etymologically it's just that old Germanic peoples assigned a different name to the less colorful butterflies.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 weeks ago

Hang on, what is bad about the word moist? Some of my favourite things are moist!

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 weeks ago

Various flowers, such as tulips, definitely hate moths.