this post was submitted on 25 Nov 2023
656 points (99.1% liked)

Science Memes

10897 readers
1137 users here now

Welcome to c/science_memes @ Mander.xyz!

A place for majestic STEMLORD peacocking, as well as memes about the realities of working in a lab.

Rules

  1. Don't throw mud. Behave like an intellectual and remember the human.
  2. Keep it rooted (on topic).
  3. No spam.
  4. Infographics welcome, get schooled.

This is a science community. We use the Dawkins definition of meme.

Research Committee

Other Mander Communities

Science and Research

Biology and Life Sciences

Physical Sciences

Humanities and Social Sciences

Practical and Applied Sciences

Memes

Miscellaneous

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
656
Cave Bear (mander.xyz)
submitted 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
34 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 21 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (3 children)

In fact, the word "brown" is the morph of the original word for bear. Whatever humans used for brown was overshadowed long ago by the very experience of bear itself, and the color alone became a prevalent warning against that thing that is the single most terrifying brown in existence.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Well, maybe. There's also a competing hypothesis that says it's the other way around, i.e. "bear" is derived from "brown"; the old word for "bear" became taboo, possibly for fear that speaking the beast's name would summon it. Either way, the fear of bears has certainly left a mark on the Germanic languages.

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

Describes the stimulus and the response.

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

Orange too. What did those horrible citrus fruits do to our ancestors???