Trying to stop software engineers from inventing new programming languages is like trying to stop college students from having sex. You’re better off spending the effort on promoting safety¹ rather than abstinence.

¹ type-safety, memory-safety, etc.

Homonyms do sometimes have completely unrelated etymologies, like with the word “Pussy” meaning coward, and being a slang term for the vulva. The cowardly definition came from a shortening of the word “Pusillanimous,” while the slang term came from women being compared to cats.

“Pussy” in the sense of “female genitals” is more likely related to “purse”, referring to the vagina’s pocket-like shape; and “pussy” in the sense of “weakling” is either ordinary misogyny or a reference to a kitten’s helplessness.

(And “pussy” for an actual cat is related to words for “cat” in some other European languages, like Romanian pisică; which ultimately come from the pss-pss call that is effective at getting a cat’s attention.)

If you want a funny etymological example though, take a look at the word “cleave”. In modern English it has two opposed meanings: “cling together” and “split apart”. This is because it was two different verbs in Old English, cleofan (the “split” meaning, related to “clove” and “glyph”) and clifian (the “cling” meaning, related to “clay” and “glue”)!

For when you need a cowboy steak.

Criticize the critical voice right back.

“Hey, brain, if you’re gonna make a diss track about me, learn to rhyme better. Your rhymes suck. I mean seriously, ‘incel’ and ‘Metamucil’? Dude. ‘Pencil’ was right there. Or ‘skin cell’. Hey, that could even be a pun, like, you’re gonna be an incel, dick like a pencil, trapped in the hell of a thin-skinned skin cell. Come on, do better.”

Here’s a curious thing: Kids going hungry cannot be explained by the profit motive alone. The food industry wants to be paid to feed those kids. The food industry benefits from SNAP and other food welfare programs, which amount to transfers of money from taxpayers to the food industry with a side-effect of providing food for poor kids.

So, kids going hungry isn’t an “economics thing”. It is not an economic necessity of mixed-economy capitalism. We can tell because there are other mixed-economy capitalist societies that don’t have anywhere near as many kids in food insecurity.

It’s a “politics thing”.

It’s about ensuring the existence of a deprived underclass, because some people’s ideology demands one.

giant ass relay

It’s a bunch of really tall dudes all having butt sex, but that’s not important right now.

I’d rather stare at the catus than care about status.

O Sybile si ergo
Fortibus es in ero
O Nobile emis trux
Vatis enim causan dux.

FRED: Hello, what’s this?
BOB: Oh, that? That’s the butt baker button.
FRED: The … butt baker button?
BOB: The butt baker button!
FRED: What’s the butt baker button?
BOB: Oh, the butt baker button bakes your butt!

TOGETHER:
Oh, the butt baker button bakes your butt,
Yes, the butt baker button bakes your butt!
If your butt’s cold and unbakéd
You don’t have to get it naked
The butt baker button bakes your butt!

and there’s no Stalin in the “Marxist-Leninist”.

“Marxism-Leninism” is Stalinists’ preferred term for their political ideology. They endorse the genocidal tyranny of Stalin, while claiming that Stalin’s tyranny is justified by Lenin’s and Marx’s theory.

If someone calls themselves a “Marxist-Leninist”, just ask what they think of Stalin’s genocides (plural). Then stand back.

Fax may outlast landline telephony.

I’d rather have aphids than have no pollinators!

Ladybug larva — and if you see a lot of these, that’s a really good sign. It means that there’s an actively reproducing ladybug population, which in turn means that the area isn’t heavily poisoned with insecticides. Let’s keep it that way!

September kids eventually figure out we were probably New Year conceptions.

Usually, “shit” is worse than “ass” as a swear word. And yet, in “this shit is ass”, the negative sentiment is carried by “ass”, not “shit”.

“I’ve looked at love from both sides now…”

Dude. Trees. Dude.

Trees, dude. Trees.

Ender’s Game came out before the Web. But like many science fiction authors of the time, Card was a very early Internet user and would have been familiar with Usenet newsgroups.

With a little bit of Hellboy.