this post was submitted on 27 Apr 2024
387 points (97.3% liked)

Antique Memes Roadshow

5886 readers
5 users here now

Giving you the backstory and appraisals of vintage memes!

Submissions should be vintage memes or commentary about vintage memes. Commenters are advised to appraise the internet value and provenance meme antiquities.

Rules:

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 
all 45 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 35 points 3 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 11 points 3 months ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Ten ten ten ten ten ten ten ten

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 months ago
[–] [email protected] 31 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (3 children)

I didn't know memes could smell like they're old through the screen until I saw this one

Google logo before Corporate Memphis bullshit and the dude using a feet to hold his cup of tea just like the classical antiquity raptor, it's just perfect

[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 months ago

This meme was passed down to me by my mother.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 months ago
[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago

Like that old book smell.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (2 children)

Because base 12 is superior to base 10.

  • Signed, the Sumerian master race
[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Nah, base 10 is superior than base 10. Atleast base 10 isn't base 10

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago
[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Yes, but they actually combine base 12 with base 5 to get base 60.

And how they do it, is also quite interesting:

With one hand you can count to twelve. Use each finger segment of the four fingers to denote a number and count by placing the thumb.

Base of index finger is 1, middle is 2 and top is 3. Middle finger has 4,5,6, ring finger has 7,8,9. Pinky has 10,11,12.

Now use the other hand to count how often you reached 12.

In terms of the names of the numbers, it goes 1-12 like we also have in English (that's why eleven and twelve have unique names).

And then you have 1-5 dozens, to get up to 60.

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

Sure? Because the only cuniform numbers I could find are base 10 and than 60. They might have counted differently with their hands, I wasn't there to observe.

But the thing you describe, I remember vaguely that it's ancient Egypt. Neither is related to modern English by the way. I guess you mixed up alot.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago

No, I'm not sure. I learned it from a TikTok video.

Google only shows me Babylonian cuneiform.

Google does show some sources that claim eleven and twelve are evidence of a base-12 influence, but most sources disagree with that theory.

So yeah, perhaps I mixed it up.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Even oneteen would be better

[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Ugh that would mean more teenagers

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

Aren’t tweens just as bad?

[–] [email protected] 12 points 3 months ago

111 is always "eleventy first" to me.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

It’s a holdover from an older base-12 counting system, one of many, many relics of the fact that English is an ever evolving language.

Edit: it’s not a holdover from a different base, but a different way of counting. See comment below for details.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 months ago

No, it supposedly derives from an old word for a leftover. Eleven is one left over after ten; twelve is two left over after ten. https://www.oed.com/dictionary/eleven_adj?tab=etymology#5639642

[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 months ago (2 children)

How old is this? That's the Google logo from like 30 years ago

[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 months ago

30 years ago was the best Internet

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

Don't age me that much. Google isn't quite 30, only 25.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Because there are 2 of them. And they look like L's.

So it's L-even

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

Great! Now do twelve!

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 months ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 12 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I like "firsteen" "seconteen" "thirteen." I'm helping to replicate the sound changes.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 months ago (2 children)

As long as we are changing things, why not get rid of the order shift as well? Teenty one, teenty two, teenty three, teenty four, etc.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago

I like this. Not only does it feel right, but it also sounds like they're the smallest, cutest numbers. They're teenty.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

The "-ty" already means ten so it makes more sense to say onety-one, onety-two, etc.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 3 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 months ago

Hey, don't interrupt coffeejoe when he's having a good conversation with himself 😂

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

Same reason why it's "once" and not "dieciuno" in spanish :)

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

Isn't that shit confusing? Once is one in English and eleven in Spanish. You can't explain that!

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 months ago (2 children)

Pretty sure its would be ichi-juu-ichi in Japanese

[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 months ago (1 children)

just juu-ichi I think the singular ten is implied.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago

Indeed. Same rule applies to one hundred (hyaku) and one thousand (sen), but not after ten thousand (ichi-man, ichi-oku, i-cchou, etc.), except in the intervals between every 4th zero like in the first set (juu-man, hyaku-man, sen-man, etc.). I love Japanese.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

Dek-unu in Esperanto.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago

why doesn't "one" rhyme with "bone"?