• palordrolap@fedia.io
    26·
    18 hours ago

    So I went down the rabbit hole of the etymology of “Gentoo” and you might say that “too” and “two” are more closely related as words and meanings than either is to the “-too” of “Gentoo”.

    The latter is a corruption / evolution of Latin -tivus of which the -tiv- part still exists in modern Latin-derived English words, like “adjective”, “active” and, perhaps importantly here, “genitive”.

    Start with the Latin root: genitivus; push it through early (*gen(i)tiū) then colonial Portuguese: gentio; and then confuse the meaning with “ill-born” or “gentile” in colonial British-Indian English to get “Gentoo”. The word was used there to describe the non-Hindu inhabitants of India. Because of course it was.

    So, apparently, Gentoo penguins are called that because they’re somehow reminiscent of 19th century Indian Muslims. Oof.

    Pausing for a second to let that one pass…

    And now…

    English “too” evolved from “to” into its own niche (compare how “than” came from “then”). The second-ness / two-ness of “too” is an accident more than anything, even though the pronunciations have converged.

    Do not ask about Ubunthree.

    • mere@lemmy.blahaj.zone
      2·
      11 hours ago

      why is firefox the de-facto ‘haha compile time = big’ package :(. pick on chromium instead, it takes like 7x longer to compile and is made by a worse corporation