I have to admit that that's an expression I've only heard in US circles. As an expression in England, it, well, has no meaning. We kicked some guy's arse and lost our best general.
Funnily I don't think I've heard Waterloo used that often, in French.
Berezina is more commonly heard as a "complete and utter fuck up of epic proportions". It's the most memorable defeat in the entire retreat from Russia, which itself was a complete disaster.
Waterloo was more of a swansong, since Napoléon had just come back to power after having abdicated, and he was hoping to prove he still had it. He did not.
Odyssey roughly translates to "The story of Odysseus", so yes, the name existed before Homer's story. The semantic connection of odyssey and a long, dangerous and arduous journey came way after that.
Wow, I really hate to be this pedantic, but it's semantic satiation. I only remember because I had a similar experience thinking it was "saturation" because it just makes more sense, but apparently we're wrong.
The Odyssey was called Odysseia. The suffix -eia is an abstract noun suffix, so it's sort of like a titular case for the name. Following the same logic, it would be Homereia and thus Homerey.
The Odyssey was part of the Epic Cycle, so Homer likely inherited the figure of Odysseus from those stories. Whether he made up the name or the name Odysseus was already established, we simply do not know. Much has been lost to time, sadly.
Wether or not Homer's writings are part of the Epic Cycle is very much a matter of... strong opinions of historians. There's good reasons to include them (They're about the same thing) and not to (Written later, and not lost, like all the other ones, so it makes the discussions annoying). We only know about most of the epic cycle because people wrote about the poems and made summaries and cliffnotes.
Many people don't realize the original Cliff was a hunter-gather circa 9342 BCE who began taking notes on cave walls, then passed down this practice for millennia before it was adapted to parchment and ultimately became the notes we read today.
According to Behind the Name Odysseus means "to hate." According to Etymonline an odessey came to mean a journey in 1889, presumably as a reference to Homer's story.
But I do have all the facts. And I find it amusing that someone wrote what appears to be the thoughts of, indeed, someone clueless about the whole thing.
Which, you would be surprised, happens quite often!
For instance my kids know Odysseus as Ulysse, in French. And so they have no idea that an "odyssée" is named after the king of Ithaca and his maritime adventures.
It's a mild joke about people knowing a word from one source and, seeing it appear somewhere else, assume a different relationship than what actually happened.
Like if someone discovered that Kleenex is a brand and exclaimed "Wow! I can't believe they can just trademark an everyday word like that!"
Or, "OMG, I can't believe Microsoft invented words ? Bill Gates is such a genius, OMG! But what did we call them in the past?! 🤯"
This screencap can spread and have a life of it's own separate from whatever context the post has. It is a meme to me, but this kind of memes is sure not created by artisan mememakers.
70 Comments
TheReturnOfPEB@reddthat.com · 257 pts · 300d
DagwoodIII@piefed.social · 91 pts · 300d
" 'Waterloo' means a complete and utter defeat. The French Emperor Napoleon lost everything at the Battle of Waterloo."
"Why did he go there, if the town had such an unlucky name?"
JandroDelSol@lemmy.world · 45 pts · 300d
Philomena cunk core
tigeruppercut@lemmy.zip · 15 pts · 300d
At least he went straight there, unlike that other French guy always taking a roundabout way of getting somewhere. You know, Monsieur Detour.
DagwoodIII@piefed.social · 5 pts · 300d
Your mother was a hamster, and your father smelt of elderberries.
tetris11@feddit.uk · 6 pts · 300d
I have to admit that that's an expression I've only heard in US circles. As an expression in England, it, well, has no meaning. We kicked some guy's arse and lost our best general.
fibojoly@sh.itjust.works · 8 pts · 300d
Funnily I don't think I've heard Waterloo used that often, in French.
Berezina is more commonly heard as a "complete and utter fuck up of epic proportions". It's the most memorable defeat in the entire retreat from Russia, which itself was a complete disaster.
Waterloo was more of a swansong, since Napoléon had just come back to power after having abdicated, and he was hoping to prove he still had it. He did not.
massive_bereavement@fedia.io · 38 pts · 300d
"Shouldn't we honor the gods before we go back home?" "Nah, trust me bro, I'll be fine"
Karyoplasma@discuss.tchncs.de · 126 pts · 300d
Odyssey roughly translates to "The story of Odysseus", so yes, the name existed before Homer's story. The semantic connection of odyssey and a long, dangerous and arduous journey came way after that.
First_Thunder@lemmy.zip · 31 pts · 300d
You could say it was an odyssey for odyssey to get that meaning
Klear@quokk.au · 15 pts · 300d
Odyssey no longer feels like a word. Damn you, semantic saturation!
PapaStevesy@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 300d
Wow, I really hate to be this pedantic, but it's semantic satiation. I only remember because I had a similar experience thinking it was "saturation" because it just makes more sense, but apparently we're wrong.
Klear@quokk.au · 3 pts · 300d
No need to apologise, this is the kind of thing I hate getting wrong. Satiation. Satiation.
Hopefully it will stick in the future.
_stranger_@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 299d
So it's more like "This is Bob and his autoBobography"
Pilon23@feddit.dk · 4 pts · 300d
Does that mean a story about Homer would be a Homey?
Karyoplasma@discuss.tchncs.de · 5 pts · 300d
The Odyssey was called Odysseia. The suffix -eia is an abstract noun suffix, so it's sort of like a titular case for the name. Following the same logic, it would be Homereia and thus Homerey.
ooli3@sopuli.xyz · 1 pts · 300d
but before the book no one was named Odysseus ever
Karyoplasma@discuss.tchncs.de · 6 pts · 300d
The Odyssey was part of the Epic Cycle, so Homer likely inherited the figure of Odysseus from those stories. Whether he made up the name or the name Odysseus was already established, we simply do not know. Much has been lost to time, sadly.
Tar_alcaran@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 299d
Wether or not Homer's writings are part of the Epic Cycle is very much a matter of... strong opinions of historians. There's good reasons to include them (They're about the same thing) and not to (Written later, and not lost, like all the other ones, so it makes the discussions annoying). We only know about most of the epic cycle because people wrote about the poems and made summaries and cliffnotes.
technocrit@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 1 pts · 297d
Many people don't realize the original Cliff was a hunter-gather circa 9342 BCE who began taking notes on cave walls, then passed down this practice for millennia before it was adapted to parchment and ultimately became the notes we read today.
Diplomjodler3@lemmy.world · 75 pts · 300d
Odysseus was a minor character in the first book before he became the main protagonist of the sequel. So yes, Odysseus was there before the Odyssey.
grissino@lemmy.world · 36 pts · 300d
Ackshually, The Odyssey is said to have been written before The Iliad, making the latter the prequel of the former.
But since the name Odysseus was in use throughout Greece before the birth of Homer then yes indeed, Odysseus was there before The Odyssey.
altphoto@lemmy.today · 1 pts · 300d
Akchuly, My gramma's great great......10 minutes later..... Great grandma's cousins friend was the first Odysseus ever to be born.
DerteTrdelnik@lemmy.world · 25 pts · 300d
So basically like Frasier
tetris11@feddit.uk · 22 pts · 300d
Exactly, those old episodes with Dr Crane working at Arkham Asylum really hit different once you know about his dark past
Buddahriffic@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 299d
Wait are you referencing something else or did Cheers have a crossover with Batman?
fibojoly@sh.itjust.works · 8 pts · 300d
The Frasiery. Nice.
Damage@feddit.it · 58 pts · 300d
I’m sorry, it’s just hard to relive this… without Jarnathan here.
chuckleslord@lemmy.world · 21 pts · 300d
"We were going to approve your release"
Love that movie. Just a simple, fun adventure.
boonhet@sopuli.xyz · 4 pts · 299d
One of my favourite movies of recent years.
After seeing it, I've been unable to see Chris Pine as anything other than Edgin. Star Trek? Wonder Woman? Still Edgin, just acting weird.
Master@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 300d
Like john crappper?
stray@pawb.social · 39 pts · 300d
According to Behind the Name Odysseus means "to hate." According to Etymonline an odessey came to mean a journey in 1889, presumably as a reference to Homer's story.
bobagem@sh.itjust.works · 3 pts · 300d
Modern thinking says an alternate etymology is more likely, but it certainly existed long before it took on the meaning from the story.
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E1%BD%88%CE%B4%CF%85%CF%83%CF%83%CE%B5%CF%8D%CF%82#Ancient_Greek
altphoto@lemmy.today · 2 pts · 300d
The new Honda Odys...er....hmm....minivan...hmm....mommascar.....the all new Honda Mamcar!
Zachariah@lemmy.world · 35 pts · 300d
It’s Odysseyn’ time!
magic_lobster_party@fedia.io · 19 pts · 300d
And then he Odyssed all over the place (for 10 years)
goatey523@pawb.social · 6 pts · 300d
The movie adaptation made an oddyseon dollars, it's more than the morbillion dollars Morbius made!
psx_crab@lemmy.zip · 25 pts · 300d
I'm gonna write a new book call Travelling Adventurer, and my protagonist is gonna called Traveour Venture.
hansolo@lemmy.today · 18 pts · 300d
Trevelor A. Deventure
But his middle name is also Adventure.
otter@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 4 pts · 300d
Even reading his name's a journey.
makeshiftreaper@lemmy.world · 16 pts · 300d
You jest but the main character of Snow Crash is literally called Hiro Protagonist
tburkhol@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 300d
With sidekick Yours Truly.
zod000@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 2 pts · 300d
Neal Stephenson has a knack for names.
Klear@quokk.au · 8 pts · 300d
You mean The Venture Bros?
fibojoly@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 300d
✌️Go! Team Venture! ✌️
massive_bereavement@fedia.io · 3 pts · 300d
Honestly, this sounds like a Lucas Arts adventure protagonist.
programmer_belch@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 19 pts · 300d
John Odyssey from the hit series Odyssey
tetris11@feddit.uk · 5 pts · 300d
Inventor of the Odyssey, just like Sir Thomas Ladder
NigelFrobisher@aussie.zone · 3 pts · 299d
It means Son of Oddie. His dad was Bill Oddie.
jcs@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 299d
How about Joernathan? He is a dog.
markovs_gun@lemmy.world · -22 pts · 300d
I don't understand memes like this that seem to be made by and for people who can't use Google to find basic information
halcyoncmdr@lemmy.world · 28 pts · 300d
Because the meme isn't about the actual facts. It's about the joke at the end. Which you clearly missed.
njm1314@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 300d
Really nothing on earth more Lemmy than people taking joke memes super seriously.
markovs_gun@lemmy.world · -12 pts · 300d
The joke only makes sense if you don't have the actual facts or any desire to actually learn the
halcyoncmdr@lemmy.world · 21 pts · 300d
Okay Journathan
psx_crab@lemmy.zip · 14 pts · 300d
You can totally laugh at something you already know tho.
lemmyman@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 300d
No thank you I need my jokes fresh
prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 7 pts · 300d
Not really how jokes work, but ok
fibojoly@sh.itjust.works · 3 pts · 300d
But I do have all the facts. And I find it amusing that someone wrote what appears to be the thoughts of, indeed, someone clueless about the whole thing.
Which, you would be surprised, happens quite often!
For instance my kids know Odysseus as Ulysse, in French. And so they have no idea that an "odyssée" is named after the king of Ithaca and his maritime adventures. It's a mild joke about people knowing a word from one source and, seeing it appear somewhere else, assume a different relationship than what actually happened.
Like if someone discovered that Kleenex is a brand and exclaimed "Wow! I can't believe they can just trademark an everyday word like that!"
Or, "OMG, I can't believe Microsoft invented words ? Bill Gates is such a genius, OMG! But what did we call them in the past?! 🤯"
Go ahead try it.
dohpaz42@lemmy.world · 15 pts · 300d
Of course we can all google information. But it’s more fun to involve other people; especially if we find it funny.
massive_bereavement@fedia.io · 6 pts · 300d
Wait.. Do you mean that social networks require interaction with other people?
fibojoly@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 300d
Fun fact, you can ignore everybody else and play Single Player Lemmy, if you really want. Kinda empty, though.
tatann@lemmy.world · 10 pts · 300d
And I don't understand why people call social media posts "memes"
There, we both must be fun at parties
fibojoly@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 300d
Eh, that agree with you. Like all those stupid POV or "No one" macros. Words have no meaning anymore :/
altkey@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 2 pts · 300d
This screencap can spread and have a life of it's own separate from whatever context the post has. It is a meme to me, but this kind of memes is sure not created by artisan mememakers.
mika_mika@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 300d
The world and society as we know it is, and has always been, just vibes. Absolutely nothing is real.
otter@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 5 pts · 300d
FTFY
devfuuu@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 300d
Clearly you haven't used google recently..
RanryuuRain@sh.itjust.works · 4 pts · 300d
AI summary Ad Ad AI article Wikipedia 🙇♂️ AI article Reddit post
Exaggerating, but in the worst cases that's about what you'll see.
TheOakTree@lemmy.zip · 2 pts · 300d
You forgot to add the SEO-optimized AI slop websites that rehash information in the least useful way.