Why are things that you wear on the bottom half of you plural? Pants, pantaloons, panties, bloomers, boxers, briefs, culottes, tights, jeans, shorts, slacks. For socks and sock-like things it makes sense because there are two individual objects, but a pair of pants? Is each pant leg a “pant?” Why don’t I call each sleeve of my shirt a “shirt” and the whole thing a “pair of shirts?”
Why is a loincloth, on the other hand, singular?
I have to learn UNIX code.
I’ve been putting off learning computer programming for years. It never seemed like something I needed to do – I’m a biology person, not a computer person. It’s my job to go look at stuff under a microscope and see if it’s glowing green or crawling out of the dish yet. If I needed something calculated, I could always get Excel to do it, or go find a computer person and make them do it for me.
But the modern era has finally caught up to me and I need to learn UNIX and Perl so I can handle some large sets of DNA sequences in the lab. The experience has felt something like being airlifted into Japan with nothing but a granola bar and a compass. But it could have been worse. I could have needed to learn one of these languages:
Oh, by head.
Noooooooo!
This one, on the other hand, makes an odd amount of sense:
I CAN HAS VAR?
microondas – Spanish for “microwave.” This one needs little explanation, really. Don’t you just wish you could tell your friend you’re about to go warm up your burrito in the microondas? Props also go to the Spanish paloma, “dove.” They know how to make their language poetical-sounding.
deinos – Ancient Greek. As in dinosaur. It’s a slippery thing to pin down what this word means, though. The meanings shade from “terrible” to “great” to something that’s roughly equivalent to the modern English “awesome.” When something is so cool it scares the crap out of you, it’s deinos.
quamquam – Latin. Actually I have no clue what this means, but it sounds great.
arigato – Japanese for “thank you.” English’s “thank you” is adequate for its purpose, but it just doesn’t convey the same depth of gratitude that the Japanese does. Try watching an anime sometime and you’ll see what I mean. When somebody looks another person in the eye and says arigato, you can tell they mean it.
Oh, the nerdiness … I love it.
