this post was submitted on 31 Jul 2023
71 points (100.0% liked)
Showerthoughts
29793 readers
738 users here now
A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. A showerthought should offer a unique perspective on an ordinary part of life.
Rules
- All posts must be showerthoughts
- The entire showerthought must be in the title
- Avoid politics
- 3.1) NEW RULE as of 5 Nov 2024, trying it out
- 3.2) Political posts often end up being circle jerks (not offering unique perspective) or enflaming (too much work for mods).
- 3.3) Try c/politicaldiscussion, volunteer as a mod here, or start your own community.
- Posts must be original/unique
- Adhere to Lemmy's Code of Conduct
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
This is complete speculation, but I wonder if the less common inverted title (eg Lake Michigan, River Thames, etc) comes from English's French influence. In French they usually invert the title in this way. For example, what we call the Eiffel Tower, they call the Tour Eiffel.
I just looked it up, so the French use tour for traveling from place to place and a tall thin tower? I obviously don't know French, I wonder if it's from touring (as in travel) small thin buildings.
I did some digging and the two words have different etymologies. So it's a coincidence. English has many words that share the same spelling but have different meanings/etymologies as well. "Fan" for example. For "tour", the "tower" usage comes from the Latin "turrem" which also means "tower", and the "tour" usage comes from the Latin "tournāre" which means "to turn".
That's super interesting, so it sounds like it's just a shortened version of two different words. Words go on such long journeys.