Rambling 193: Words and Stuff
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Who decided what words mean? Why do those people have the right? Why is communication so difficult? And how come strangers want to flash us instead of talking to us? The duo unpack language and all its quirky little features relative to today’s society!
+Episode Details
Topics Discussed:
- Chatroulette
- The Internet
- The Rules of English
- How Language Works
- Webster’s Dictionary
- Urban Dictionary
- Amnesia
- Multiple Personalities
- Anime Tropes
- Soap Operas
- Perfect Communication
Our Links:
Official Website - https://greythoughts.info/podcast
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+Transcript
Cristina: Warning. This program contains strong themes meant for a mature audience. Discretion is advised.
Jack: Going live in five, four.
Cristina: What does live mean? Welcome to the Rambling Podcast. I'm your host, Christina.
Jack: And I'm your host, Jack.
Cristina: And this is the show where we ground humanity's most absurd and baffling ideas.
Jack: Yes. All thinky and whatnot.
Cristina: All thinky?
Jack: Yeah. Cuz words.
Cristina: Cuz words? Yes.
Jack: I mean, right. Who. Okay, who's gonna tell me thinky isn't a thing? If I said thinky, you. You'd know exactly what I meant. No, think by thinky. If I were to say, like you could just use. English is so intelligent. Context clues. Gives you all the information you need to know. So I'm like, man, that puzzle's real thinky and I can't solve it. You know what I mean?
Cristina: I sort of.
Jack: Yeah, like you can assume, you can assert, you can figure it out. It's there. That's. That's.
Cristina: It's really all it takes.
Jack: That's really all it takes. So who says thinky isn't a thing? If I can convey a thought with thinky and you can catch that thought, then it. It served its purpose. It worked.
Cristina: It worked. Yeah.
Jack: The purpose of language is just communication. And the purpose of communication is to try to convey to you the thought and feeling that I have for the thought, I guess the same time, as accurately as possible. And that's like trying to calculate something's position and its speed at the same time or some s***, you know?
Cristina: But this is all things inside of you that you're trying to pull out.
Jack: Yes, that's. Well, that's the purpose of communication. Communication is to just convey that thought. And your opinion on the thought, I suppose, to make them feel. But we can't do it. A hundred percent impossible. But that's the purpose of it. And if thinky can do that, then it's a word just as much as any other word because it served to communicate something super exact. So who's to tell me the thinky isn't.
Cristina: I guess, right? Yeah, it works.
Jack: Cuz it just. That's how Cuz words.
Cristina: Cuz the words.
Jack: Definitely words. Tell me. No cuz words. No. You got to come and fight me. You got. You got to convince me. No.
Cristina: No to thinking.
Jack: No to cuz words. Oh, I can make any word work, but in theory, anything could be. That's how slang happens, right?
Cristina: Yes, exactly. How slinky happened.
Jack: Yeah. Like slang is just random s*** that people. It's. Slang is to a cult what language is To a church. Okay, so both slang and a cult are way small. Small groups of people, local, while language and a church. Well, you're only a church, not a cult, because you've been around a while.
Cristina: Oh, okay.
Jack: When the word has been around a while and it's so common that the majority has it, it's no longer slang. It's just commonplace. Yeah. It's just a church.
Cristina: Because the dictionary is. I guess the church and little words are just.
Jack: That's crazy. Who decided, dude?
Cristina: Who? Who?
Jack: Okay, first of all, which dictionary is the one that's God?
Cristina: I don't know.
Jack: Is it Webster? Why do I feel like it's Webster?
Cristina: There's like, a bunch, though, aren't there?
Jack: There's totally a bunch of different dictionaries.
Cristina: That's the one.
Jack: You know, though, which of the dictionaries is the one that all the other ones are just following behind? Is it Webster?
Cristina: I don't know.
Jack: Is that way. That's like the big kahuna.
Cristina: Is that like, just a person who's in love with words? Like, I mean, the original dictionary? I guess.
Jack: What is. What the f*** is happening there? Because think about this. They're just. They're choosing this. Is it a team of people who. I. Why do they get to choose which word is a word? It's just. That's weird, bro.
Cristina: I use Dictionary.com. they're full of words.
Jack: Yes, but why is Urban Dictionary considered less legitimate than, like, Webster Urban Dictionary, huh? You get my point? This is what my thought is saying, like, why is Webster the thing like, Urban Dictionary is just, like, those are real words that you can communicate. Yes. A bunch of troll s*** is written in there, and just people being a*******. I get it. But a bunch of that s*** is actual real words that people use as well.
Cristina: It's really hard to find, though. Like, you can't just go into Urban Dictionary and find the word, like, randomly. Like, you would just get the troll words. It's hard unless you know of the word you're looking for, I guess.
Jack: Yeah. That's the whole point, Right? Like, you want to find the definition of something you heard.
Cristina: Oh, okay.
Jack: That's what a dictionary is for. I mean, I guess some people discover words in a dictionary.
Cristina: Yeah, but what if you want to discover words like, how do you know in at least in that dictionary?
Jack: Well, that's probably not the best dictionary. That's the same like Wikipedia, which is just an encyclopedia of all things.
Cristina: Mm.
Jack: That, like, because of the amount of incorrect information in it, it's useless like, no, that's incorrect.
Cristina: Mmm.
Jack: You know, it's astoundingly useful. It's a shortcut to general information that's mostly reliable, and it's a good starting point for you to do other research to confirm and get real data.
Cristina: Mm.
Jack: Fantastic.
Cristina: That is fantastic.
Jack: I feel like Urban Dictionary is that.
Cristina: It's.
Jack: It's that for words.
Cristina: Yeah. Yeah.
Jack: It's like, you can. It's not the best place to, like, go find a new word. We can find the new word if you wanted to. And that's like, a good place to at least start and then look for other definitions of the word.
Cristina: Yes.
Jack: She can still learn, I guess.
Cristina: Just a lot of it's so dumb. Like, a lot of it's just names. I don't know.
Jack: Yes. People just insulting other people. That's all it is.
Cristina: There's people insulting other people. They know.
Jack: That's.
Cristina: Whoa.
Jack: Yeah. That's like. It's crazy how that's like chat roulette. It's like the amount of dicks you'll come across here.
Cristina: Do people still use that?
Jack: Probably. There's probably a couple of variants of this. I know there are. I don't know your names, but I know factually, there's a couple of different variants.
Cristina: Like the one that starts with the. Oh, that's similar, right?
Jack: Omegle. Yes. I think that's the more popular one now. Chat Rulet is probably, like, the ancient one.
Cristina: How ancient?
Jack: I don't know.
Cristina: Ten years ago, maybe.
Jack: I guess. I guess. Because you got to think about it this way. We're talking, it exists on the Internet. Like, how f****** long ago could it have really been? Like, the Internet just kind of happened. So, like, anything big like that. Yeah. At best, I'll give it like, 15 years. It existed.
Cristina: Okay. That's a long time.
Jack: You know, Internet, so young. 15 years ago, you hit face. I met MySpace.
Cristina: Mm.
Jack: D***, you go back 15 years, you could hit MySpace. No, it might have been a little after MySpace, right?
Cristina: What, the shot? Whatever.
Jack: No, just 15 years ago.
Cristina: Oh, okay.
Jack: Is 15 years ago still after the death of MySpace?
Cristina: I don't know.
Jack: But yeah, Chat Roulette and Omegle is a popular one. I think Chat roulette's the other one. Yes.
Cristina: Were you on that?
Jack: I was on Chat roulette, yes. Mad dicks.
Cristina: Are you on Omegle?
Jack: No, I've casually jumped into Omegle. But there's also mad dicks also.
Cristina: I don't know if I'm saying that word right.
Jack: I don't. I Don't ever know if I'm. If I've never heard. I've. Okay. Like, I know I sound redundant to anybody listening because I've said this before, but if I don't. If I've never heard somebody say the word, I don't know if I'm saying it right.
Cristina: Yeah.
Jack: Like, if I only read it, like, how the f*** do I know?
Cristina: Yeah. I feel like that's how we see it. Like when people put videos on it on YouTube or something, like clips. You're just reading the title that says the word. I don't think the people actually say it while they're in the clips, because that would be weird. They're already, you know, they're doing the video. Do they say, I doubt it.
Jack: I don't know what you're talking about.
Cristina: If you're on. If you're watching a clip From Omegle on YouTube, like someone pranking someone else, they're not gonna say look at me on whatever that is. Omegle. Yeah, they're not gonna introduce the website. I mean, it's on the title. Unless they do. And I just don't remember the word that they're using to describe Omegle. Is it Omegle?
Jack: I think it's Omegle. How else would you say it? Okay, spell it out.
Cristina: Omogo.
Jack: O, M, O. Mugle. E. Omi.
Cristina: Omegle. I have no idea.
Jack: No, I think it would be Omegle.
Cristina: Omegle.
Jack: Omegle. I think it's Omegle.
Cristina: Yeah, maybe. It just sounds so weird. It's a weird word.
Jack: I think in order to change the sound of the E in a lot of circumstances, we need an H. Omegle.
Cristina: Like meh.
Jack: You know, it would be meh.
Cristina: Meh.
Jack: So otherwise it would be me.
Cristina: Okay, so it's probably omi.
Jack: What other sounds E do?
Cristina: Just me and me.
Jack: No, no, just anything followed by E and ending on E. How many sounds.
Cristina: Can we get ending with E?
Jack: Yes, Just things that end in E.
Cristina: It could sound like nothing. Like have ends with E. Oh, f***.
Jack: Name.
Cristina: Name.
Jack: That E is silent.
Cristina: Exactly. Ending with E is silent.
Jack: But that. That's weird because that E changed the M. Right. Instead of Nam, that M became some whole other s*** name. It actually changed. It affected the M and changed the A.
Cristina: Did it change the M? How did it affect the M?
Jack: I guess it didn't affect the M. It changed the A. Only.
Cristina: Yeah, yeah, that's how it works.
Jack: Changed the A from nam to name.
Cristina: Yeah, that's his job.
Jack: The E'S job. Right. So the E doesn't really change. The E is the changer.
Cristina: Yes.
Jack: I kind of dies because it ends a lot of words.
Cristina: Yeah. Changes a letter and then dies.
Jack: It becomes useless.
Cristina: Yeah.
Jack: Weird. And I know that's not, like, even a rule in English. This is a weird pattern that exists.
Cristina: That's definitely a rule in English.
Jack: That's a rule in English.
Cristina: Definitely.
Jack: Like, if we took a profound English class, it would teach us that for whatever reason, E affects a vowel before it.
Cristina: I feel like he learned that in, like, first grade or something.
Jack: Really?
Cristina: Yeah.
Jack: Vowels affect each other that way. No f****** way.
Cristina: Yeah. I feel like when they give you spelling bees and stuff like that, when they're trying to teach you how to.
Jack: Spell words, then I don't. What the f***? Then again, I don't remember my f******.
Cristina: You don't remember?
Jack: I don't remember anything.
Cristina: Because you're. You're one of those many characters that people make up online. Yeah.
Jack: Oh, for message board. Like RPGs.
Cristina: Yes. What do they have?
Jack: They all have amnesia.
Cristina: Exactly. Okay, there you go. Amnesia. You have amnesia.
Jack: Yeah. No, no, no. They all have amnesia. That's fascinating to me that that's so common, especially in those. Any kind of role playing scenario. And the anime world.
Cristina: And the anime world. The anime world filled with amnesia.
Jack: So much amnesia.
Cristina: So does dramas, soap operas, Soap operas love amnesia.
Jack: But soap operas don't just love amnesia. Soap operas have, like, super, like a Resident Evil game. There's just like a lot of s*** they're all gonna have.
Cristina: Yeah.
Jack: You know, like Resident Evil has the lab. That's always gonna happen as the rocket launcher that gets thrown at the end. It has the boss that always has to mutate into something bigger. You know, it has all these things that are always gonna happen. Two characters and you gotta split up for whatever reason. You know, always the same s***. And like, soap operas have, like, there's like an evil twin.
Cristina: Always.
Jack: Always. And there's always like the guy in the hospital that everybody, like, visits. She's in a coma sometimes. Yeah. I. Is it two people in a hospital because they go and visit the sick. Oh, no, because one is a sick dying person that's not in a hospital. That's like in a room somewhere in the attic or some, like the granny or some crap to old dying person. Yes. In bed. And then there's a person in the coma that's usually because of the evil brother or some s*** like that.
Cristina: Twin brother.
Jack: Yes. And then there's always the gun.
Cristina: Mm.
Jack: And they show It. And it's in, like a drawer or some s*** like that, you know?
Cristina: Yes. And there's always someone with amnesia.
Jack: There's always one with amnesia.
Cristina: Yeah. Makes sense.
Jack: But why is that in soap operas? And why is that in anime? And why is that such a role playing thing?
Cristina: There's something cool about it. Not cool. I don't know. Because you can.
Jack: It's lazy. It's lazy writing. You don't need an origin story. You're just like that.
Cristina: Or you have an origin story you just don't want to reveal right away.
Jack: Interesting. And you want.
Cristina: You want to build it up. Yeah, yeah.
Jack: Unravel it little by little.
Cristina: Because then it's going to be shocking when we know, oh, the guy with amnesia was, I don't know, a prince the whole time or whatever.
Jack: Yeah. Interesting. Interesting, man. I guess that is a shortcut to cool, but it goes back to lazy. It goes back to lazy because you're taking the shortcut no matter what. It's an easy way to just. Instead of being clever and coming up with a new way to do it.
Cristina: With a new way to reveal things without making a character either have amnesia or just be extremely mysterious.
Jack: Yes. No. The. Oh, my God. Amnesia isn't even the only thing. And it might be the less, the lesser of the two things.
Cristina: What's the.
Jack: Now that I think about it. Oh, no. Oh, no. It's the one with the two personalities.
Cristina: Oh.
Jack: That has way more common in all of the things we just talked about.
Cristina: The two personalities are crazy different. Like Jaco and Hyde.
Jack: Yes.
Cristina: Yes.
Jack: Banner and Hulk.
Cristina: Ah. It's everywhere.
Jack: It's everywhere. It's everywhere. You just think of Harley Quinn's two moods. Oh, man. It's everywhere.
Cristina: It is.
Jack: Yup.
Cristina: So do you have. You have amnesia? Do you also have the true personality thing? Are you also a character?
Jack: Yeah, man. I'm probably. Because you gotta understand. You gotta understand. The. The origin story is really complicated. It has N*** Germany and it has robot technology. There's ghosts involved. It's. It's a mess. There has to be, like, several different lives going on.
Cristina: Okay. Makes sense.
Jack: Yeah.
Cristina: That is too complicated. It's pretty complicated. We'll figure it out, though.
Jack: Yeah. Using words.
Cristina: Mm.
Jack: Because that really is how it works. Right? Just fascinated by just being able to say tricky.
Cristina: Tricky.
Jack: Yeah. Because it's not a word, but it kind of is.
Cristina: Tricky is a word.
Jack: Is that what I said before?
Cristina: Tricky, Thingy.
Jack: Thingy.
Cristina: Thinky.
Jack: Thinky, Thinky. Yes.
Cristina: Well, thingy is really a word that people use. That isn't a word.
Jack: Yeah. Actually, that's a better example. People probably use thinky as well. But thingy is definitely not a word. Or by now it probably is.
Cristina: It probably.
Jack: Is it probably in the God of dictionaries or whatever.
Cristina: Thingy.
Jack: Thingy.
Cristina: Mm. It's an awful word.
Jack: Now, who is the, like, OG word N***? Let's. Let's find out who that person is. A person or people or, like, who's choosing? I just want to know who's choosing.
Cristina: They're called lexographers and I'm looking up the word a writer, editor or compiler of a dictionary. And they don't add new words to the dictionary. That's not their job. They're not making up words. They're just seeing what words are being used by a lot of people.
Jack: So they do what's already. I guess they're collecting data. Yeah, yeah, they're collecting data. It's already how language works. So it's like whatever people decide is a. Whatever people are using as a word, they'll just record if it's popular enough.
Cristina: Yeah. It just has to be used by a lot of people. Used by those people largely in the same way. Like, it has to have the same meaning between these people.
Jack: Yeah. It can't be, like, completely radically different from one person to another.
Cristina: It's likely to stick around and it's used and it's useful for a general audience and that's all they need. And that's the word when that is already a word. But, you know, that goes in the dictionary.
Jack: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Cristina: So that makes sense.
Jack: Yeah, it checks out, because I feel like that's the only way to do it. Right. You can never control how language works. But then the problem is, if it's only going to the majority at all times, the words that are used by the majority, then it completely ignores words used by minorities by default, by definition. So if the majority of a country, for example, who predominantly uses language, although I suppose they also might include words from England.
Cristina: What, in the dictionary?
Jack: Yes. Like in. Again, using Webster as the only one I know off the top of my head, which is why it's the one I'm suspicious of, because, like, how are you this overpowered that I know of a dictionary, but does Webster collect British words?
Cristina: I don't know. If they're a dictionary for English words, then I'm assuming no. Unless they're borrowed English words, which would be a lot of the words anyway.
Jack: Wait, British is English.
Cristina: Yeah, but, like. No, I know we use the same words. But I'm saying, like, they have words that we do not use.
Jack: Yes.
Cristina: Like they. You call the toilets something else. Or wait, they call it whatever they. You call the bathroom something else. Something like that.
Jack: Yeah, whatever.
Cristina: You know.
Jack: Not the point. Yeah. Yeah, but I know what you mean.
Cristina: Those words would not be in our dictionary.
Jack: Yeah. So they would, for a fact, not show up.
Cristina: I would think so.
Jack: Got you. Okay, okay, okay. Because that's.
Cristina: If it's a dictionary specifically for Americans, this is dictionary for English, then English is really complicated. And I don't know how.
Jack: Yeah. Because this is too many.
Cristina: It's too many. Yeah.
Jack: But I guess that would be the different definitions we see. Right. But also. Okay, yes. Here's the thing. We see different definitions for a word in a dictionary.
Cristina: Yes.
Jack: Which means they're not taking just one meaning for it anyways. They're already sort of giving you several of the meanings for the word.
Cristina: Yes. But those. It's probably because the meaning of the word changed over time. Like, it was very popular for this meaning once upon a time, and now it's this meaning, like. Or sometimes there are words that you would use differently. You use one word differently depending on the sentence. So I don't know.
Jack: Yes. But I still stand by. I think urban dictionary is probably the best tool for communication at the time.
Cristina: For the best communication.
Jack: The best tool for communication because you can understand sort of a more nuanced part of language. I guess you'd have to go through, like, if you were learning English and you wanted to just basic communication and get everything out.
Cristina: Mm.
Jack: You go through Webster. That's the kind of dry, you know, sit down at a desk kind of thing. But then, like, the jazz player is the urban dictionary, which is the. The nuanced kind of tasteful other things you could say.
Cristina: You just gotta be careful on what you pick, though.
Jack: Well, obviously. But I'm saying that the sort of. Its position relative to it is sort of that. Sort of. Kind of. Just the more loose kind of not boring.
Cristina: Yeah.
Jack: But like, you couldn't understand a lot of those things without going through Webster first.
Cristina: You need both, I guess.
Jack: Yeah, we definitely need one first. You don't necessarily need the other, but the other one will add.
Cristina: Definitely add. But they're both good to have. Because then you understand things that you probably wouldn't with urban. Like, I don't know who would be using that. Children. The urban dictionary, like, is that words just children are using. I don't know.
Jack: No, I think it's just all the words, all the Words. Words.
Cristina: Oh, okay.
Jack: Or all the popular words.
Cristina: All the popular words.
Jack: I don't know how popular word has to be in order to get there, though. It's just a. Has to be real popular. What the h*** do you mean by.
Cristina: Popular, then, in urban dictionary? I don't even think it needs to.
Jack: Be popular on Webster. Webster. Oh, like, let's think about this. If a town, a single town uses.
Cristina: The word, is that enough?
Jack: Is that enough? This just one town, small town, let's say 500 people in this town. Is that town qualified? Okay, so if no, then there's number. Right.
Cristina: But does it matter where it's at? Like, does it have to be a word spread out? Like, how do you determine? Like, maybe if the town has its own dictionary for some reason, then, yeah, it would be in there in their dictionary. That's how it works.
Jack: Yeah, I guess. I guess there's a general dictionary. Like, all these words, obviously, to everybody just mean this.
Cristina: Mm.
Jack: That's the first part. And then all these words are from where you're reading it.
Cristina: Yeah.
Jack: Or from where it was bought or from where it was originally made.
Cristina: Bought or originally made?
Jack: Yeah. Like, the area where it came from is essentially the region of earthworch came from.
Cristina: Would they have that in the dictionary? I wonder how it works, because we couldn't. We couldn't find how many people actually they need to say it's a word.
Jack: Yeah. I don't know. It's so vague. Right. So I don't. I don't understand. What number is it that they're using? And why do we allow certain things like this to exist where some of the information seems not even real?
Cristina: What do you mean?
Jack: Like, the number they're using to judge this, it's, like, not there. They're not sharing it, or they're intentionally keeping it away. And for whatever reason, nobody's questioning it.
Cristina: Because no one's gonna do that. Work themselves.
Jack: I guess that's work.
Cristina: Or I'm assuming it's a lot of work. Unless they're just making things up. That'd be crazy. If a word. No, because, like, if they try to make something up, someone will notice. There's no way you could just make up your own word, add it to the dictionary, and then no one's gonna question that.
Jack: You could say it's. I mean, if you're saying it's from a random other place, but they could look that up. Now they can.
Cristina: I don't know how they worked before, but now you can make sure that the words in the dictionary are actually words.
Jack: Yeah. No, you're totally right. Because there are things like just the Internet. So freaking overpowered.
Cristina: Mm. So it's. I don't know. Like, do you think people used to sneak in words?
Jack: I bet they have. I bet. I bet a couple of words got in there.
Cristina: Just made up.
Jack: Yes. Like straight made up words, but the people thought were actual words because maybe they were just clever enough to choose something that sounded right.
Cristina: Yeah. And they got a really good definition that made it work. That made people were like, I want to use this word.
Jack: Yes.
Cristina: This feels right.
Jack: I think in a situation like that, maybe not like faking a word, but in a situation like that, the common use of the word is the goal. That would be real interesting to choose something that had, like, a real cool sound to make it popular.
Cristina: What do you mean? Like, you're not gonna make up a word.
Jack: When you do make up a word.
Cristina: Oh.
Jack: But you get. If you're gonna make up a word, might as well choose a word that's gonna sound so astounding.
Cristina: Choose a word.
Jack: I mean, you're making English. Yeah. To make a word, you're inventing a whole word.
Cristina: Mm.
Jack: So, like, that's just interesting because we're saying that this is just recording. There's no creating. None of the people working on these dictionaries are making up words. No, but what if. What if, like, let's say there's six of them? What if all six of them are like, we're gonna make up this word, though, and everybody's gonna think it's just from a region that they're not in. How could they prove it wrong? You don't know which region it came from. We're just generally throwing it out there.
Cristina: What if someone just asked, though, like, to say crap. What?
Jack: Why would they have to say, I.
Cristina: Don'T know, because you're trusting them to do that? I don't know.
Jack: To tell you. Yeah, that's in Webster's dictionary.
Cristina: I don't know. I don't know.
Jack: Yeah, I don't think there's like an origin. I'm sure there are origin stories for words. Like, I'm sure in. In like Wikipedia, you can find something like that.
Cristina: The origins of some words.
Jack: Yeah. Probably find the origins of all words.
Cristina: But in Wikipedia.
Jack: Yeah. Wikipedia has all that crap. Actually, that's probably the source we should be going to for things like this.
Cristina: What? Yes.
Jack: Now, if there are things like Wikipedia, there's things like Webster, and their ultimate purpose is to inform and assist with communicating you know, rapidly with casual information, even if they're not the most reliable source of. Reliable enough. Not 100%, but it's like 95 is pretty solid, you know?
Cristina: Yeah.
Jack: Why aren't they the mainstream? What's stopping them? Wikipedia has actually become the mainstream. It has kind of replaced encyclopedias as a whole. But it seems that urban dictionary does struggle. It's kind of not well known and it's been around a long time doing what it does. It's known. It's not such monstrously big that it even slightly competes with the classic dictionaries.
Cristina: Yes. Because most people probably see it as a joke. I don't know. See, so much of the words are.
Jack: Trolley words, I guess. So I guess the problem is that all the words that get submitted get posted no matter what. No matter what.
Cristina: Yeah.
Jack: So that is an issue. That is an issue because it's like a giant thread of definitions and you could write kind of whatever you want on the thread or not. It's not really a thread. It's on top of the other. But it's like a Instagram comment fashion. They're stacked on top like messages.
Cristina: Yeah. Yeah. I don't think it'll ever be as good as a regular dictionary unless someone does monitor it. But then that takes away from the. What makes it special. Yeah, Just any word is a word.
Jack: Now. I wonder if anywhere in the world there is no such thing as a dictionary. Like they, they. They've never been told the words. Like maybe they don't understand the concept of language and they can continue to speak. They do speak to each other. They have words and everything, but they don't understand. Like maybe some lost tribe that couldn't comprehend the idea that you made this all up.
Cristina: I don't know what you mean.
Jack: Like, language is made up inherently. Yeah, but these ancient people, do they believe they made it up or do they believe there's just something natural about these words? Even if somebody technically made it up down their bloodline? Yeah, they probably attach some meaning to it. And it's like we've always talked.
Cristina: You don't think they have it written down?
Jack: Depends. Not everybody writes everything down. On the flip side, who the h*** knows? There's that one tribe that used to tie knots and tell stories and count that way. And it's like, what?
Cristina: What?
Jack: Like, how is this.
Cristina: What? Isn't it the same thing with like, the Egyptian, the photos? What are those words? The hieroglyphs, Are they not the same? Maybe.
Jack: Yeah, but we're used to stories told through Pictures, not stories told through how many knots are tied on a string.
Cristina: Yeah. That's crazy.
Jack: Like, how is that a story? How. What? I couldn't. How did you figure? How'd they figure it out? How'd they.
Cristina: That has to be a lie. To make it up together, there has.
Jack: To be fake news, right?
Cristina: Yes. Aren't there people that just whistle at each other to communicate? Yes.
Jack: Oh, that's so weird. I remember that.
Cristina: That feels like. That's more believable, I think.
Jack: Whistling at each other.
Cristina: Yeah.
Jack: Why?
Cristina: Because you can make it different, right? Like, there's different tones to it. No, actually, now nodding does kind of make sense in a kind of Morse code type of way.
Jack: Nodding.
Cristina: Making knots into stories or whatever.
Jack: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, I guess so now that you say Morse code.
Cristina: Yeah. So, yeah, I guess. I guess anything could really.
Jack: Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. No, you broke it down. You broke it down. Because at the end of the day, Morse code is just 1 and 0. So if you can just convey 1 and 0, you have a perfect communication system.
Cristina: That's all you need.
Jack: Because you can make it more complicated than that. Just with 1 and 0.
Cristina: Mm. So with the knots, it's gotta be the same, like, the size of it, how far they are from each other. There's different details that we would not be able to tell. But these people who are reading it.
Jack: And even if we figured it out, there's probably mad nuance. We haven't.
Jack: You know?
Cristina: Yeah.
Jack: But then is their only way of communication through these nods?
Cristina: No, no.
Jack: They just spoke normally. But they didn't have writing. They just did this instead.
Cristina: Yeah, I mean, I'm sure they writing now. I mean, that was probably before they had writing.
Jack: Yes.
Cristina: Right.
Jack: I mean, it had to be. Right.
Cristina: It had to be. That's just a weird thing to be like, I can write, but let's play with string instead.
Jack: I'm gonna make a whole. Not spiderweb so I can teach you something I could just say out loud in, like, a second.
Cristina: Yeah. There's no way.
Jack: Yeah. It's so inefficient. It has to be for artistic reasoning. Right. That's the only way those knots would make sense.
Cristina: Like, even before, if they didn't have anything to write and they just had a bunch of rope for some reason. Like, that's the most common thing for some reason. That's why they communicate with ropes.
Jack: So the goal here, I mean, not the goal, but the idea here is they learned how to knot before people invented rope.
Cristina: Before rope.
Jack: Yeah. They had to learn how to knot before rope.
Cristina: Why?
Jack: Where are they getting the folk?
Cristina: This is civilization before paper.
Jack: No, my bad is the other way around. They learned how to rope before they learned how to talk. That's where I'm getting at. Because they've. If they know how to talk.
Cristina: Yes.
Jack: Then they already know they have words.
Cristina: But if they don't know how to write it down or like that's not the first thing that they thought of to do was like.
Jack: So like, I can speak to you right now, but I don't think of anything else other than in knots. Other than words coming out of my mouth.
Cristina: Yeah. Like you picture in knots as well. I guess. Like how we can picture these words as words, you know, on the text, your, you know, regular Alphabet letters.
Jack: Yes.
Cristina: You know that because that's what everyone uses. Because that's the thing we do. But like, if we just didn't have that, like, why did we choose that? Like, maybe they just evolved differently or whatever. Like.
Jack: Yes, 100%. When we look at a different places, the country, different countries, characters, it looks like just not language. If you're not used to seeing it.
Cristina: Yeah.
Jack: Looks like random nothing until you get familiar.
Cristina: Yeah, exactly.
Jack: Exactly. So I'm assuming, I guess that that's what we were facing here.
Cristina: Mm.
Jack: Sort of removed. It's only strange and not a thing because I'm not used to it, but the more I get it, the like. More. Yeah. Of course it works.
Cristina: Of course.
Jack: Think of it.
Cristina: It's probably the way they sent messages to each other. I don't know.
Jack: Like, I feel that's crazy. I mean, I guess you make a cool, intricate looking, like dreamcatcher appearing thing and then you send that on the trip and then they look at it and they're like, wow, this dreamcatcher informed me on everything I needed to know.
Cristina: Or maybe the person who wants to tell the story is the one that makes the rope and it's to remind themselves of the different parts of the story. It's not to actually give the other person to read the story because maybe they wouldn't be able to understand the story. Like, what if that's how it works? If you make the story yourself, you put points to remember the story and then that's how you tell the story to someone else.
Jack: You use it as a reminder.
Cristina: Yes. As a reminder.
Jack: Yes.
Cristina: Does that make sense?
Jack: I suppose, because.
Cristina: Because it's so weird to imagine that everyone's understands that story of that rope. Whatever rope you.
Jack: Yeah. Because had. How do they know that you're There has to be room for interpretation and that kind of restricts it. But then again, there doesn't have to be room for interpretation. We just like that.
Cristina: But yes.
Jack: Like maybe everything just means one thing and doesn't need context.
Cristina: It could, but it could also be just a person knows. I don't know. That's so. I wonder if there's anything else. Okay, there's the rope thing and there's the whistling thing, but that's it.
Jack: Role playing.
Cristina: Rope thing.
Jack: Roping. Roping Rope thing. The rope thing.
Cristina: The rope thing.
Jack: Oh, the rope thing. Yeah. Make the nodding.
Cristina: Making knots. Yes, making knots.
Jack: Yeah. This makes me wonder how many of these. Actually, I was gonna say like, you know, old languages or translations from something that isn't even necessarily a spoken language or words, but something like nodding or hieroglyphs or something in the translations, we definitely lose something. Like there's no way. We're a hundred percent spot on with what we're talking about when we're trying to convey. Oh well, this is what this picture might lay up. Maybe.
Cristina: Yeah.
Jack: You know, but even today, with really extremely well known languages, let's say some of the most popular languages in the world, Spanish, English and Mandarin. In those three languages, from like English to Mandarin, how much crap is lost simply because like we're estimating and we can get pretty close. Somebody can know both fluidly, but also they still know the estimations. Like it's natural and that's. They don't even think of it as an estimation. But really if you sat down and thought about it, there's probably words that don't even exist in the other language. So you can convey that. You have to say a bunch of other words to try to best get to that, you know.
Cristina: Yeah.
Jack: So you're losing something. You're never really saying exactly the same thing. You're just getting close.
Cristina: Mm.
Jack: That's weird.
Cristina: That's weird. But that's what communication is sort of communicating what's going on inside.
Jack: You're always trying to communicate as closely as possible, but never 100% because it's impossible.
Cristina: Yeah. That's impossible. To both share the feeling of thinking like all of it all, whatever is up there. There's no way it's so.
Jack: But then it doesn't even matter because they're not. They never lived. Your perspective to have your filters to affect the information and think about it. Your way to then understand the emotions are feeling in the first place or the opinion they've got relative to the thing.
Cristina: Mm.
Jack: Because you Gave it to them. No, they need to also get your experiences in that con or the experiences relative to that thing, which could be. So.
Cristina: It's complicated.
Jack: It's complicated. It's so impossible to get somebody to understand. But you can agree to a bunch of crap.
Cristina: And you.
Jack: You know, some of the things in, for example, language. Some of the things in language won't convey what you're trying to say. You know, you go in agreeing that some of the things won't put. The majority of. Will psycho use. Very useful. The majority of the things, I think will be able to be conveyed not perfectly.
Cristina: No.
Jack: But better than the zero that if I didn't have this way of communication.
Cristina: That's why we always have new words. That's why the dictionary has to keep growing.
Jack: To do it better.
Cristina: Do it better. Yeah.
Jack: Specific. Yes. We're always trying to get closer. The closest would be. It wouldn't even be cloning because that would just. You break off the second you're cloned, Right?
Cristina: Yeah.
Jack: Yeah. It has. It's crazy. No, it's really just in a moment, not through permanence, because impermanence defeats the purpose, but for a moment, to be able to convey a perfect thought with emotion, opinion, and, like, every experience is attached to it that you're just like, whoa, I get it. Literally 100% to the same degree that you do.
Cristina: That doesn't sound possible. Doesn't sounds crazy. Like, how would you be able to do that?
Jack: Yeah. But I mean, I guess. I don't know. We consistently, as humans, think we got s*** in the bag, but we probably. With language particularly, we probably got a lot of crap wrong.
Cristina: Like, what do you mean?
Jack: Just language in general. We probably got a bunch of words from one language to another. Even within our own language, we sit here and debate. England says this word this way, we say it that way. Same thing happens in Spanish. I actually have a better example there. Marica is an insect in Spanish, but also marika could be a gay person. It's a slur for a gay person in Spanish. So they're totally different meanings. The same thing goes for the actual word gay. It means happy, but it also means homosexual.
Cristina: Mm. But you know how the person. What the person means when they say whatever they're saying?
Jack: Because the context surrounding it. Yeah, yeah.
Cristina: Like, it's hard to confuse what they're talking about. Unless, like, that. That's really hard to imagine someone being confused by that.
Jack: Yeah. But I guess. I guess it's too. I guess English is pretty solid. Most elixes are I don't know.
Cristina: A guesstimate is good enough. Just being close to the right answer is good. It's passing. It's fine.
Jack: Yeah, because it achieves the goal of communication. Getting close.
Cristina: So do you want to guess some urban dictionary words?
Jack: Sure.
Cristina: Because it shouldn't be that hard.
Jack: All right.
Cristina: It's English. Yeah, I think.
Jack: Urban dictionary. Okay, so what am I doing? Explain it.
Cristina: Okay, I'm going to tell you a word. You're going to guess the meaning of the word. Then I'll give you a sentence if you need it, with the word. And then do I give you the definition? I was thinking, no, I should give you the word. I don't know. You ask what you want. The definition or a sentence after you guess what the meaning is. Okay, no, the definition will give it away. I'll give you the definition if you get it wrong.
Jack: What I'm trying to do is. The definition.
Cristina: Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, okay, I'll give you a word. You guess the word, I give you example. If you fail, you guess again, and then I'll give you the actual definition if you fail again.
Jack: Okay, that makes sense.
Cristina: Get two tries. Yes, that makes sense. Okay, the first word. Potaint. Potent potaint.
Jack: Something about the a******. Po. I don't know. A pooped. You pooped your taint.
Cristina: Mm.
Jack: A poopy taint. S***** a**.
Cristina: Very close, very close. Do you want a sentence?
Jack: Yes.
Cristina: The potato screamed when I kicked it in the potaint.
Jack: Oh, it's just an a******. The b*******.
Cristina: It's very specific.
Jack: It's a taint. Yeah, it's a taint area of a potato.
Cristina: It's the soft and sensitive part of a potato.
Jack: Oh, s***. Okay.
Cristina: It's a pot taint.
Jack: Cat. You.
Cristina: Yes, yes. Very close, I guess.
Jack: Interesting. Interesting.
Cristina: Mourn hub.
Jack: Okay, Mourn Hub. Hub is p***, but mourn. It's necrophiliac p***. Mournhub.
Cristina: Whoa. Okay.
Jack: You said mourn Hub. Yes, mourn Hub. It feels to me like it's. It's like death dot com, you know? It's like necrophiliac p***. A tube is also. Tube would make me think p*** is.
Cristina: A. I'm gonna give you the exact.
Jack: Okay.
Cristina: Okay. Person A. Got any plans tomorrow? Person B. No. Well, I'm going to my dad's funeral at the p***. Sorry. Mourn Hub. Person A. Oh, man. I'm sorry about that. If you're feeling mourny, I'll give you a call. I know someone to give you someone you might like. Ignore. Morning. That's the Next word. Or one of the words, but. So do you know what p*** crap mournhub is?
Jack: No.
Cristina: Has nothing to do with p***, okay? It's just a nickname for the funeral home.
Jack: I would never have guessed that.
Cristina: Okay, so ridiculous crap. Why does it sound so much like pornhub?
Jack: Pornhub doesn't make me think p***.
Cristina: Morning. What do you think that is from the last thing it was mentioned? What could it be?
Jack: I don't know. What is it?
Cristina: There's a feeling of extreme horniness during times of great emotional pain.
Jack: Okay, so morning.
Cristina: Yes, Morning. While h****.
Jack: Morning.
Cristina: Wooden onesie.
Jack: An uncircumcised d***.
Cristina: Oh, I have to read this. Okay, this sentence is so horrible. Or because it has an accent, but whatever. Me mom's prettier than you and she's sleeping in a bleeding wooden onesie.
Jack: I don't get it. And she's sleeping in a. This is the sentence.
Cristina: Mm.
Jack: Say it again.
Cristina: Me mom's prettier than you and she's sleeping in a bleeding wooden onesie.
Jack: I don't know.
Cristina: The term originated from Ireland used to define a coffin.
Jack: So it's also about death.
Cristina: Yes, they're all about death. No, they're not. How about COVID version?
Jack: A person who hasn't caught Covid. Or it's the first time catching COVID.
Cristina: They haven't caught Covid or taken any of the vaccines. That's a Covid version.
Jack: Interesting.
Cristina: You know some Covid versions.
Jack: Probably.
Cristina: Kakamamie. Kakamami. Kakamami.
Jack: Kakamami.
Cristina: Mamie. That's probably how you say it.
Jack: Mamie.
Cristina: Yeah.
Jack: No idea. Give me a sentence.
Cristina: This cockamamie washing machine never works properly.
Jack: Say what?
Cristina: This cockamamie washing machine never works properly.
Jack: It's a company. It's a piece. It's an insult. A piece of s***.
Cristina: It's crazy.
Jack: This crazy? It means crazy.
Cristina: I don't know it. A word you use when you cannot. Can't think of the proper terminology. That's so dumb.
Jack: It's like f***.
Cristina: Hot. Af. That should be easy.
Jack: Hot as f***.
Cristina: Yes. Yes. Blip.
Jack: What?
Cristina: Blip.
Jack: Blip, Blip. Spell it.
Cristina: B, L, E, P. Blep. Blip.
Jack: I don't know. Give me a sentence.
Cristina: Tiger is just sitting there with a blank look on his face and an adorable blep.
Jack: Get the f*** out of here. I don't know. What's the definition?
Cristina: A cat sticking his tongue out.
Jack: Oh, my God. Nobody would know that.
Cristina: Do you need an fobby? You know fomo?
Jack: Yes. Fear of missing out.
Cristina: Okay, now guess. Phobia, phobi.
Jack: Fear of.
Cristina: You can do it.
Jack: B*******. Backing phobe. What's it.
Cristina: Okay, try the opposite of fomo.
Jack: Well, no, no, no. What was the word? Oh, phobia, phobia. Fear of. I'm over it.
Cristina: Fear of being invited.
Jack: Oh, that's not the opposite of. Fear of missing out.
Cristina: Well, you don't wanna be in.
Jack: Yes.
Cristina: So it's kind of the opposite.
Jack: No, because in the other option, you're not avoiding anything either.
Cristina: Yeah. One is you wishing you were there. One is you fearing being there.
Jack: Oh, I see. Okay. Yeah, that makes sense.
Cristina: Okay. Should I give you one more?
Jack: Yeah.
Cristina: Okay. C*** wobble.
Jack: A c*** wobble? Yes, It's a limp d***.
Cristina: That's. Andrew is such a c*** wobble. That's not even helpful at all.
Jack: That isn't what Isn't a completely useless.
Cristina: Person that spouts constant bullshit.
Jack: Oh, I know those people.
Cristina: You know some cockwobbles.
Jack: I know, I know. I've met many cockwobbles in my life.
Cristina: You gotta use that as part of your dictionary.
Jack: Like my language.
Cristina: Yes. If you're gonna use any of these words, it should be cockwobble or blip.
Jack: Not cockwobble.
Cristina: Not cockwobble.
Jack: No cockwobble.
Cristina: Oh, okay.
Jack: Because it's gonna make people think.
Cristina: Yes.
Jack: Wow, this cockwobble thing is serious.
Cristina: Yes. I'll give you a few more. Nikki.
Jack: Nicky.
Cristina: Nakey.
Jack: Nakey is nude.
Cristina: Nude? Yes. Pretty much. It's chilling without any clothes on.
Jack: No, the chilling part is just added. You don't have to be chilling to be nakey.
Cristina: No, because that's naked. I guess it's like being able to live freely without clothes or pressure from others to put some on.
Jack: Interesting. You could be naked at home.
Cristina: I guess that's pretty much the easiest place to be. Nakey.
Jack: Yeah. Or a nudist colony.
Cristina: Yeah, but someone running around outside. Nakey problems. Yeah. Yes, problems. The next one is lawyer's lawyer.
Jack: Lawyer's lawyer. Person likes to argue. No, a debater.
Cristina: A debater. A lawyer's lawyer. When the crimes you commit are so bad that your lawyer needs to get a lawyer.
Jack: So ridiculous lawyer ends up needing a lawyer.
Cristina: And the next one is unfuck withable. I don't know if I'm saying that right. And f***. Wisible.
Jack: Yeah, but that's an easy one. That's just somebody who won't take s***. No wake. F*** it. You're gonna immediately snap back.
Cristina: Mm. How you get some of these? Like two, three of them?
Jack: Yeah, but those Are easy. Is it truly weird, like, intentionally picking, like, crazy, unknown ones that makes it difficult?
Cristina: How about recession dating?
Jack: What the f***? Recession dating. That's picking whatever's out there. Like, settling for less.
Cristina: Pretty close. You go out on a date with someone you're not interested in to get a free meal due to the state of the economy.
Jack: Okay, but that's literally just what the name sounds like.
Cristina: Yeah. Yeah. Okay, one more. It's don't p*** down my back and tell me it's raining.
Jack: I've heard this saying before.
Cristina: What?
Jack: Don't p*** down my back and tell me it's raining. What is that? Don't lie to me. Don't betray me.
Cristina: Whoa, whoa. Two of the three? Because it's pretty much, yes. Something you say when someone lies to you, cheats on you, or betrays you. So you got that one.
Jack: Yeah, fair enough. See, that's. That's life experience. That's an easy one, too. I've heard that one before many times, so. Yeah, but we're running out of time anyways. It doesn't matter.
Cristina: All right?
Jack: It doesn't matter. The point is that communication sucks, and we all suck at communicating.
Cristina: But words are great.
Jack: But words are great. And language is pretty dope.
Cristina: So use some of these, especially in Blip.
Jack: Blip. Anyways, if you guys want to listen to conversations of this nature, maybe there's more of these. I don't know. But these other episodes in what we talk about, a bunch of other crap. We probably discussed language at some point in the past. Probably not directly, but I'm sure we, like, circled it.
Cristina: I'm pretty sure we have.
Jack: Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, there's like, 200 episodes. You can fish to to find that.
Cristina: Good luck.
Jack: May the force be with you. But you can find us outside of the show at our social medias with clips and stuff, and you can find that. That's all Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, uscometvopod.
Cristina: Remember to subscribe, rate, and review the show.
Jack: Yes. Word of mouth. The most important thing since the creation of toast. Why do people say that this is the best thing invented since sliced bread or whatever? F. I don't know. Sliced bread is badass.
Cristina: I don't know.
Jack: But, like, also, it's not loaf bread.
Cristina: It's not that amazing.
Jack: Take a seat. Sliced bread.
Cristina: There's better things than sliced bread. Peanut butter.
Jack: I think it's just convenient. Oh, I think it's convenient and good tasting simultaneously. I think that's what catches people.
Cristina: It's so boring, but okay.
Jack: Yeah.
Cristina: Pretty much better than pizza. No, I let someone who might like this show know about it.
Jack: Word of the mouth, powerful talk, invite talk.
Cristina: Say these words.
Jack: Yes.
Cristina: That we've taught you.
Jack: You've learned much.
Cristina: This has been the Rambling podcast. Take nothing personal, and thanks for listening.
Jack: Bye. Somehow Penguin Day and Martin Luther King Day are so close to each other, considering how related those two things are.
Cristina: How those things are related. But I have a question, though, because from what we talked about last time, we don't have penguins. I mean, do we have penguins?
Jack: No. Penguins aren't birds, okay? We. We have a creature that is bird like, that has been manufactured, okay, to survive in Arctic conditions.
Cristina: And we call them penguins.
Jack: And we call them penguins, all right, because their flaps are used to push them through the water. But the flaps look like wings. We're like, that's a bird. But, like, we all know birds aren't real.
Cristina: Yeah, that's why I was confused. We gave a whole day to this fictional thing.
Jack: No, no, no, no, no, no. Penguins are the protectors of the Arctic Wall, and it was created by the overlords on the other side of the wall.
Cristina: Good morning. Good morning. The podcast is hosted by Christina Collazo and Jack Thomas, produced by Lynn Taylor and published by great dots.info art by Zero Lupo, and logo by Seth McAllister with social media managed by Amber Black.
