(Fun) facts about different languages

[aa-dav]

Proto-indoeuropean roots amaze me many times.

THE MATRIX

https://www.etymonline.com/word/matrix

late 14c., matris, matrice, "uterus, womb," from Old French matrice "womb, uterus" and directly from Latin mātrix (genitive mātricis) "pregnant animal," in Late Latin "womb," also "source, origin," from māter (genitive mātris) "mother" (see mother (n.1)).

I have in previous papers defined a "Matrix" as a rectangular array of terms, out of which different systems of determinants may be engendered from the womb of a common parent.

(с) James Joseph Sylveste, 1851

In Russian "mother" is "mat*" (* - soft t at the and, this is important in Russian, "mat" with hard 't' is "dirty language") and "womb" is "matka".
Moreover - there is "mater*" variant for "mother", but it is a little bit outdated as noun, but still is very common in derived words and idiomatic phrases.

So... 'matrix' is 'womb' or 'mother giving birth to...'.
Well, interesting.
The title of the movie took on new colors.

[Pokun]

Wow that's a long-winded path from womb to mathematical array.

I think the movie probably went with a term which was a common alternative to "cyberspace" in science fiction, much like the "Grid" is in Tron. I think "matrix" was first used or at least popularized by William Gibson (the inventor of the cyberpunk genre and who also coined "cyberspace" for this use) and also used in cyberpunk TTRPGs like Shadowrun.

I guess matrices and grids are popular for this use in SF because arrays are perfect for representing a world or space in a digital world with the array elements representing discrete positions in this world. Besides arrays are used like this in video games, regardless if it's a 1-dimensional array for the play-field in a card game or slot machine or a 3-dimensional array for a level in a complex 3D-game.

But the connection of matrix and mother/womb is very interesting, as it fits very well as the digital counterpart to "mother earth" and the "earth mother".

[tepples]

What is ham anyway? Even restricted to languages closely related to English:

• inside of knee, or back of thigh
• cut of pork from the buttock and thigh
• home
• village
• actor with exaggerated style
• amateur communications operator
• (Catalan) fishhook
• (Galician, reintegrationist) [they] have
• (German, colloquial) [we, they] have
• (Middle English) enclosed pasture
• (Old English) covering, shed skin, shirt

[creaothceann]

What is ham anyway?

Hold-And-Modify, of course.

[Pokun]

In Swedish ham is normally translated to "skinka" which literally means buttock and refers to pork buttock (though the culinary disaster of a pack of processed slices of meat typically sold as ham/skinka probably has nothing to do with pig buttocks). We eat a special Christmas-ham (which is always real pork buttock), like Americans (and I think Englishmen?) eat turkey at Christmas, and traditionally with a decorated whole-roasted pig head with a red apple in the mouth (though which I think at least UK has too).

But the word "ham" seems to more accurately refer to the backside of the thigh where the hamstring muscles are (ham + string) which would be a little lower than the buttocks. It seems to have derived from a Germanic base meaning "crooked".

[aa-dav]

A little meme time:



Russian translation (non-professional) says:
"Take a piss on me, The Lord."

[Pokun]

Heh sounds like the speaker (Kaname I guess) hopes for rain.