Science Memes

10271 readers

2545 users here now

Welcome to c/science_memes @ Mander.xyz!

A place for majestic STEMLORD peacocking, as well as memes about the realities of working in a lab.

Rules

Don't throw mud. Behave like an intellectual and remember the human.
Keep it rooted (on topic).
No spam.
Infographics welcome, get schooled.

Research Committee

[email protected]

Other Mander Communities

Science and Research

Biology and Life Sciences

Physical Sciences

Humanities and Social Sciences

Practical and Applied Sciences

Memes

Miscellaneous

founded 2 years ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

465

LEARN THE DIFFERENCE PEOPLE 👏👏👏 (mander.xyz)

submitted 4 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

28 comments fedilink hide all child comments

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] [email protected] 44 points 4 months ago (1 children)

According to my Spanish friend, 1st one is a cocodrilo 2nd is a cocodrilo 3rd is also a cocodrilo 4th is a monstruo

[–] [email protected] 39 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (3 children)

Fun fact about the etymology of "alligator:" When the Spanish first landed in what is now Florida, they found alligators and simply called them "el lagarto," which literally translates to "the lizard." While there were many reptiles in the swamps and bayous, only one was enough of a problem to be called "THE lizard," and after ~~several mistranslations~~ being borrowed into other languages, "el lagarto" morphed into "alligator"

Or at least that's what I read somewhere once.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 4 months ago (1 children)

We still colloquially call them lagartos, regardless if its a crocodile or alligator.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Good to know! I took years of Spanish classes and my kids are in a Spanish immersion school in California, but I've only ever heard lagarto for smaller lizards and cocodrilo for anything resembling crocodilians

Thanks for the info

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago

Yeah lagarto literally means lizard, but we use it for pretty much any type of reptilian that looks like a lizard lol

[–] [email protected] 9 points 4 months ago (1 children)

All of this is correct, except that it's not a "mistranslation", it's a borrowing. Boundaries between words and morphemes are commonly lost in borrowing, and borrowed sounds commonly undergo adaptation as well.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 months ago

Thank you. Linguistics is not my field, obviously

[–] [email protected] 8 points 4 months ago

In the northern Territory of Australia we have no alligators. We are however famous for pur salt and fresh water crocodiles.

So whe.n Europens arrived and found this few massive rivers full of crocodiles they called them the West, South, and Aast alligator rivers.