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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[โ€“] [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.

[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 2 weeks ago

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