2007-02-04 01:43:43 · 12 answers · asked by Anonymous in Education & Reference ➔ Words & Wordplay
i guess majority rules, things are what they are because society is comfortable calling them that, and they cant be changed or no one will know what your talking about try changing the name of a part to your car, and ask the person at the part store for the part by the name you given it, and see if you get the right thing
2007-02-04 01:49:50 · answer #1 · answered by crazylarry88 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It happens all the time, how many people call a vacuum cleaner a Hoover?
Homo-sexuals are usually called Gay now.
People are constantly inventing new names for things, occasionally these names get adopted into general use.
Things are called what they are called because that is the name which most people understand.
If I told you to sit on a Bartioff and you never knew I meant a Chair
You wouldn't know what to sit on.
2007-02-04 01:56:02 · answer #2 · answered by FairyBlessed 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Dp you mean who makes up the words, like 'car' or whatever? All the language we use has changed over time. The English we speak now didn't sound like this four hundred years ago.
When people invent or discover new stuff they name it. The word they choose is usually from another language, or they make it up.
We add words from other languages, especially Latin (and Indian. Pavillion and pyjamas are words from India.) Latin is used because it is the language understood by all scientists, no matter where they come from or what language they speak. Other languages are used when people go to live in those countries, then come back.
We use those words because they are what we're taught when we're little by our parents, they don't suddenly invent a new language. It changes gradually over many generations.
2007-02-04 01:55:00 · answer #3 · answered by sarah c 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Your question touches on something very deep in humanity - the way we organize our lives by the way we name/group them. What if there were no words to recognize skin color differences? What if there were no words to describe people with more money or less money? Still, this is a very different question than asking if a banana would be better called a "jaunearc." Thanks for the question. :-)
2007-02-04 01:56:51 · answer #4 · answered by bullwinkle 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
They do, e.g. I am the only one who knows that what everyone calls an apple is actually a yerna.
2007-02-04 04:12:15 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
They do call them something else!
When it rains we say 'it's raining' - when the rain is on the floor we call it 'a puddle'. Why? Why don't we call it 'a rain'.
We call a cloud - 'a cloud' but when it is at ground level we call it 'fog'.
Just a thought??
2007-02-04 01:48:32 · answer #6 · answered by jamand 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Because then the "something else" would
be what they are actually called.
And that of couse would bring us back to
square one.
2007-02-04 01:53:22 · answer #7 · answered by kyle.keyes 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Why call a spade a spade when you could call it a "manually operated excavating device".
2007-02-04 01:48:13 · answer #8 · answered by Del Piero 10 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
ive always wondered that.... how did they know to call an apple an apple
2007-02-07 21:24:07 · answer #9 · answered by emma228uk 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
a lot of people do and no one knows what they are talking about
2007-02-04 01:46:57 · answer #10 · answered by booge 6 · 2⤊ 0⤋