Why is Anything Called Anything?

[YesYesYesandYes]

I have a question for ye Escapist members... Why is water called water? Why is fire called fire?

I've just been wondering in my crazy little mind why anything is called anything. Doesn't it strike anyone odd we have a meaning for anything?

Yeah, I understand the meaning of the word is usually Latin blah, blah and blah. But -WHY-? Where did the Latins get the word? When did people start calling fire? When did the Latins start calling whatever they called fire?

Has our language gotten a reboot ever? When did we start changing Latin words into other words?

Also, a question to the "English is our second language Escapists."

When you speak/say "Fire" in your native tongue. Does it translate into "fire" to you? Or does your native tongue mean something else? Like... "Fire" could be called "Quatel"

I don't mean "spoken" in your native tongue. What the word "means" in that native tongue.

 

[Redingold]

Because.

That's really the only reason. I mean, if it were called something else, you'd just ask why it was called that. Nobody can trace the etymology of words back to when we first started to speak.

EDIT: Just a thought, onomatopoeic words can be easily traced to a root.

 

[Braedan]

Because you have to call it something.

without a reference place you have to make up words, which is why new words today usually have root words, because we DO have a reference place.

 

[nippynips]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etymology

And in spanish fire is fuego, which means fire.

 

[SckizoBoy]

Perhaps you should read 'On the Origin of Languages' by Jean-Jacques Rousseau...

Though for something more literal, read Ludwig Wittgenstein (or one of his ilk).

 

[Distorted Stu]

Why is an Orange called orange?

We may never know.

 

[imnot]

Why the hell not?
*Hopes this is not low content XD*

 

[Agayek]

Because of etymology.

The original problem was "How do I convey a concept to someone else?", way back in ye olden days. Eventually, someone just made a noise and pointed at a rock, so everyone then agreed that that noise would represent the concept of "rock". This continued for a while and over the course of several generations, they developed a basic language.

As time progressed, that language was tweaked, both intentionally and not, until it eventually reached the modern forms we speak today.

Our language (I assume you mean English, but this applies to most every language) has never had a "reboot". They have changed dramatically from their original forms, but there's never been an actual reboot.

And Latin words changed because of a variety of factors. Most of them changed simply by an accident of mispronunciation. People would stumble over a word, or their accents would alter how the word was heard, and eventually it mutated the language itself. That's how dialects form. If you give a dialect enough time, it will become a completely distinct language.


And for your final question: Fire means fire, that's about it. It doesn't matter what is actually said, the concept is still intact. Most people will translate it in their minds to their native tongue, and will think in their native language. The problem with that is that sometimes there are concepts that simply do not exist in the native tongue. When that happens, one is forced to think in the new language.

The whole point of language is to convey concepts. Fire, fuego, feuer, etc are all only representations of the idea of "fire".

If the word fire is translated into another language and means something other than fire, it wasn't translated correctly in the first place. Translation requires that one convert the concept for one language to some other language. If the word means something different afterwards, it's not a proper translation.

 

[Akytalusia]

it's easier to communicate your intentions when you can draw from a communal pool of idea labels to express your thoughts.

 

[Glademaster_v1legacy]

Well for a solid real object we have to have a name for as already said and you will get this answer a lot. As well as this that a lot of words do come from root words or a combination of words like telescope which as far as I remember means far(tele) vision(scope). Other things like "craic" are abstract ideas specific to a language and culture that has developed over time so they have come up with words to match them. The Fins also have a word for something similar to bravery/courage like we Irish have "craic" which is loosest terms is a good time/fun.

Fire in Irish is tine.

 

[Jegsimmons]

cause if we didnt we wouldnt have language and by extension technology or existence beyond a monkey.

also you would want to point at everything you want to refer to. you'd run out of hands.

 

[loc978]

Damn, I thought this thread was actually going to be about the word "anything", not etymology in general. I had a clever answer for that...

Anyway, Nippynips answered the posed question in such a way as to bring about /thread.

 

[BigDeadMushy]

because people are scared of the unknown,and naming the objects gives us the power of Knowing.
don't ask me to go into it any further as this is all I gleaned from the Person Much Smarter Than Me (capitalized as this is his Name now) on the subject

 

[SckizoBoy]

Because of etymology.

I'm inclined to agree, but from the OP's incoherent... rambling, it seems as though an answer of the philosophical kind is required.

For example: how did the concept that we perceive as 'fire' translate from the physical manifestation of a fire into the vocalised word that evolved into that which we now use as 'fire'?

The Rousseau paradox of learning language: 'for if men needed speech in order to learn to think, they had a still greater need for knowing how to think in order to discover the art of speaking.'

Moreover, he states that some sort of vocal articulation must be arrived at by unanimous consent; but since language is needed to voice consent: 'speech appears to have been necessary to establish the use of speech.'

Therefore: how the hell did mankind discover and propagate diction?

Incidentally, I can't answer that question, nor would I know where to start.

OT: The syllable 'fire' is meaningless in Cantonese...

 

[Extasii]

Why is an Orange called orange?

We may never know.

Because the guy that discovered oranges named them before he discovered carrots?

 

[thylasos]

The gradual and complex evolution of the syllables for concrete items into abstract ideas and back, influenced by the evolution of writing systems.

Some words have onomatopoeic roots, but not a great many.

We settled on syllables for a few things, I'd imagine, eventually described other things with mixtures of said syllables, encountered peoples who used different syllables, and took influence from them and/or vice-versa, which has continued via emigration, trade, war, and various other factors for the entirety of recorded human history. All languages, save those of extremely remote tribes as-yet-undiscovered by the world at large, are a melting-pot of other languages which have had an effect on them.

As far as I'm aware, the furthest we've traced this gradual evolution of language back to is the semi-theoretical Proto-Indo-European, dating from, plus or minus 1000 years, 3700 B.C.E.

 

[thylasos]

Why is an Orange called orange?

We may never know.

Well, because the original name for it in english, a "norange" lost the initial o in the transition between spoken and written language, having originally come from the arabic, via the spanish "naranja".

 

[Anarchemitis]

Coincidentally, Scientists have yet to pin down the origin of human Grammar.

 

[Wilko316]

Because it has to be called something.

Ah damn, people have already made this joke.

... still putting it up though.