this post was submitted on 04 Sep 2023
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Showerthoughts

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A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. The most popular seem to be lighthearted, clever little truths, hidden in daily life.

Here are some examples to inspire your own showerthoughts: 1

Rules

  1. All posts must be showerthoughts
  2. The entire showerthought must be in the title
  3. No politics
    • If your topic is in a grey area, please phrase it to emphasize the fascinating aspects, not the dramatic aspects. You can do this by avoiding overly politicized terms such as "capitalism" and "communism". If you must make comparisons, you can say something is different without saying something is better/worse.
    • A good place for politics is c/politicaldiscussion
    • If you feel strongly that you want politics back, please volunteer as a mod.
  4. Posts must be original/unique
  5. Adhere to Lemmy's Code of Conduct

If you made it this far, showerthoughts is accepting new mods. This community is generally tame so its not a lot of work, but having a few more mods would help reports get addressed a little sooner.

Whats it like to be a mod? Reports just show up as messages in your Lemmy inbox, and if a different mod has already addressed the report the message goes away and you never worry about it.

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[–] Aurenkin 70 points 1 year ago (3 children)

I'd pronounce it Graphics Interchange Format Friend

[–] [email protected] 24 points 1 year ago

The G in GIF stands for Giraffics.

[–] hudson 7 points 1 year ago

“Sally”

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Did you know SCUBA is an acronym?

[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Like Griff but without the r.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] jballs 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

No, the file format uses the same g sound that you get in gigantic.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago (1 children)

anything besides the peanut butter pronunciation sounds weird

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago

I suppose I would pronounce it like, "Giff".

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The same as how I would pronounce "giraffe" but without the "ira" and "e".

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

Girlfriends forever.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago

I would rather nickname it 'raff

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago

Exactly how it's spelled.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

I would pronounce it as stupid long horses.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

Probably like the peanut butter, because I wouldn't want it to be confused with my gorilla with the name spelled the same way, but pronounced with a hard 'g' sound.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

I would pronounce it with a Ezh (Ʒ) (the sound in pleasure), as that's the sound we use to pronounce it in my language.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Still not "jiff". I'm not a coward.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Jiff is the minority opinion, how would it be cowardly to use it?

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

I'd rather nickname it Jeff. Jeff Bezos.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Before or after you shave it bald?

[–] [email protected] -1 points 1 year ago
[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

I'd quit using nicknames because of my lack of creativity and style

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Giff with a hard g.

Yes there are many examples of soft g before i, like gist. But English orthography isn't self-consistent, so ultimately all these arguments become reductio ad absurdam.

~~G in GIF stands for Graphics. Period.~~

I agree that g for graphics isn't a terribly good argument one way or another. But the reductio ad absurdam part is the more important bit. All language, ultimately, is arbitrary, with successful information exchange being the only measure that really matters. It's especially so for something like GIF that occurs far more often in text than speech.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I find the "G stands for graphics" an extremely weak argument. In English the pronunciation of acronyms never seem to consider the pronunciation of the original words. Examples include scuba and laser. If you pronounced those like the letters in the original words, they would be pronounced scuhba and laseer.

That said, pronounce it how you want, I don't care. You don't need a reason to pronounce it one way or another beyond "this is the way I heard first" or "this is the way I hear the most". But the "graphics" reason is not a good one because (at least in English) nothing else follows that rule.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

I choose giraffics.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

In that case, my vote is on GIF with the voiced postalveolar fricative /ʒ/ from genre and measure.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

It's ✯✯fancy✯✯

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

I would pronounce it Harold

[–] medusa 1 points 1 year ago

"Giraffe" etymologistically speaking has roots in the Middle East, giving it a "je" sound: jarraf, zarafa, et al

spoiler"ultimately from Persian زُرنَاپَا‎ (zurnāpā), a compound of زُرنَا‎ (zurnā, “flute, zurna”) and پَا‎ (pā, “leg”)".
So if it's "Giff" like "giraffe" - /dʒɪf/ - soft g like "George". If it's named after someone with a name like Kathy Lee Gifford, then hard G.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

I think I see where you're going with this...

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Giff, the double f means hard g to me. Whereas the single f in gif demands a soft g.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 1 year ago

I would pronounce it like Giraffe without the ra - unlike the GIF file format which is like Gift without the t.

[–] [email protected] -3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

If the only reason to pronounce it 'jif' is because of the context of it being a giraffe, then its a bad name and it also kinda proves the point of everyone who says that 'gif' shouldn't be pronounced 'jif'.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago

Oh shit wait no he has a point