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nighttime pollinator gang rise up (mander.xyz)

submitted 1 day ago by fossilesque@mander.xyz to c/science_memes@mander.xyz

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[-] azertyfun@sh.itjust.works 6 points 1 day ago

I didn't even know disliking moths was a thing until recently.

Guess why? In French they are called "night butterflies". It's just a nocturnal butterfly so of course it's brown, duh.

This feels like the Orca/Killer Whale debate again. Why do the English give such terrible names to animals like they're trying to give children nightmares?

[-] Couldbealeotard@lemmy.world 5 points 1 day ago

What do mean regarding terrible names? "Moth" isn't inherently a bad name; any negative connotations of the word come from the creature itself.

[-] azertyfun@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

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.