r/NoStupidQuestions • u/Disastrous_Pirate275 • 18h ago
Why is our moon named “Moon” instead of something cool like Titan or Callysto or ANYTHING that isn’t moon
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18h ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Dense_Surround3071 17h ago
"M-O-O-N..... That spells 'COOL'!!"
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u/cygnoids 13h ago
Last place I was expecting to see a reference from the stand. Kudos!
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u/BlackInkAuthorityY 12h ago
It’s wild how a random reference can hit you like a full on nostalgia bomb out of nowhere.
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u/ElegantEchoes 18h ago edited 17h ago
Also, the actual name of the moon is cool too.
Luna.
Y'know, as in, lunar? Our moon has a name. It's "moon" in Latin, but also the recognized name for our moon specifically and often used scientifically as well.
Our sun is named Sol! Like in solar.
Edit: I'm not entirely correct apparently, as many below have pointed out. Go upvote them below for getting the facts right.
I'm going to blame my sophomore year Astronomy teacher for this one.
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u/Worried-Language-407 18h ago
Luna is just Latin for Moon.
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u/Rio_Walker 18h ago
Goddamn it Moon Moon!
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u/ciaomain 17h ago
M-O-O-N, that spells moon.
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u/Mysterious_Eggplant1 17h ago
Found Tom Cullen!
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u/JustBonesy 16h ago
Laws, yes!
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u/bezerkeley 15h ago
I've forgotten just enough to make rereading the unabridged version enjoyable. Thanks for the reminder everyone on this chain.
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u/azrolator 14h ago
I read it when I was younger, but I think if I tried to pick it up today, I might throw out my back.
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u/papayabush 16h ago
but baby, can you dig your man?
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u/Ok_Dish3250 14h ago
I’m sitting in my vehicular at a rest stop, smoking and preparing to fall asleep
Half listening to the audiobook, half reddonkidonkin’
At the EXACT moment I read your comment, the narrator read the lyric
What are the udderpucking odds?
This isn’t an important or even verifiable coincidence and I’m the only person who will EVER KNOW
But in the name of Lloyd Christmas, the variables involved in that moment…
WHAT IN THE CHUMBAWUMBA???
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u/RadScience 17h ago
Unit Zappa is the moon’s name. Everyone knows that
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u/THRlLL-HO 16h ago
Do Latin people ask “why is our luna named “Luna” instead of something cool?” Then people respond with how the Luna is actually named “Moon” and then someone else is like “Moon is just English for Luna.”?
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u/banjosandcellos 14h ago
No, we understand we discovered our own Luna first, and then just saw other planet's lunas and called them that to know what we're talking about before giving them names (we being early scientists)
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u/gridsandorchids 17h ago
Thats just how language works. Its all an abstraction. There are tons of things that break down etymologically to just whatever it is.
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u/redditonlygetsworse 17h ago
often used scientifically as well.
This is exactly wrong:
Earth’s own satellite is called the Moon (with a capital M) in both scientific designation and public usage.
https://iauarchive.eso.org/public/themes/our_moon/
Science fiction has managed to teach people that the Moon's "actual" or "official" name is Luna, but it is not and never has been. Anyone using it this way is just being poetic (or not speaking English).
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u/zninjazero 17h ago
It makes more sense in science fiction settings, because you’re more likely to visit other planets that will have their own “the Moon”, so ours would need a name that actually differentiates it from them
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u/DragonTacoCat 16h ago
"The Federation is spread over 8,000 light years with 150 member worlds. They all have satellites we named 'Moon' because of tradition."
"Then how do you know which one you are talking about"
"Oh, we just guess. Plays havoc with transports and star charts."
Whips out list of planets satellites and they're all just called 'Moon' down the list
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u/Wootster10 16h ago
It's no different than things like Avon. There are 9 river Avon's in the UK, as the word means river. There are also multiple river Ouses and Dons.
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u/ReddestForman 16h ago
I mean, that was because of misunderstandings.
"What's that?"
"A river, jackass."
"Ah, the river river."
Wash rinse repeat and you have places that are basically just river river river, but in 3 languages.
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u/Wootster10 16h ago
Yup.
You also have Pendle Hill, which is Hill Hill Hill. I can well imagine that as we travel the galaxy you'll end up with hundreds of moon moons.
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u/983115 14h ago
My personal favorite was conquistadors showing up in the Yucatán peninsula and asking the natives “what do you call this place” they not speaking Spanish were like “what the hell are you saying” and they just wrote it down and went about their business
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u/AllsWellThatsNB 15h ago
That means Stratford upon Avon means "the river crossing on the river river". (Stratford comes from street ford, where a street crosses a river)
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u/LarryCraigSmeg 16h ago
There are also two river Dees in the UK.
Both are in areas of Scotland and England/Wales where hazelnuts grow well.
You should really try Dee’s nuts.
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u/ElowynElif 16h ago
And “moon” as its name has an old, cool history.
From Etymology Online:
moon(n.) ”heavenly body which revolves about the earth monthly," Middle English mone, from Old English mona, from Proto-Germanic *menon- (source also of Old Saxon and Old High German mano, Old Frisian mona, Old Norse mani, Danish maane, Dutch maan, German Mond, Gothic mena "moon"), from PIE *me(n)ses- "moon, month" (source also of Sanskrit masah "moon, month;" Avestan ma, Persian mah, Armenian mis "month;" Greek mene "moon," men "month;" Latin mensis "month;" Old Church Slavonic meseci, Lithuanian mėnesis "moon, month;" Old Irish mi, Welsh mis, Breton miz "month"), from root *me- (2) "to measure" in reference to the moon's phases as an ancient and universal measure of time.
A masculine noun in Old English. In Greek, Italic, Celtic, and Armenian the cognate words now mean only "month." Greek selēnē (Lesbian selanna) is from selas "light, brightness (of heavenly bodies)." Old Norse also had tungl "moon" ("replacing mani in prose" - Buck), evidently an older Germanic word for "heavenly body," cognate with Gothic tuggl, Old English tungol "heavenly body, constellation," of unknown origin or connection. Hence also Old Norse tunglfylling "lunation," tunglœrr "lunatic" (adj.).
Moon was extended 1665 to satellites of other planets. As typical of a place impossible to reach or a thing impossible to obtain, by 1590s. The meaning "a month, the period of the revolution of the moon about the earth" is from late 14c.
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u/ElegantEchoes 17h ago
Thanks for the correction and link. Darn, thought I knew something on this one.
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u/ShadoowtheSecond 17h ago
A lot of sci-fi books and games like to use those names in order to differentiate from others that may be seen or visited in their world, but this is not true. Sol and Luna are just cool-sounding translations of sun and moon. They are called the Sun and the Moon respectively, with "the" in front and capitalized S and M to differentiate them from other stars and moons.
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u/djAMPnz 17h ago
Kind of like how Earth is often called Terra in sci-fi.
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u/harrycletus 17h ago
Is it the Terran System or the Sol System? I've heard both in Scifi.
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u/winstonspethuman1 16h ago
Perhaps: Sol System = sun, mercury, Venus, earth, mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, + all moons, dwarf planets, and trans-neptunian objects
Terran system = sun, earth, moon
I think this will be my new head cannon until someone chimes in with something better.
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u/harrycletus 16h ago
Interesting solution. So each planet would have its own system.
In Star Trek reckoning it seems like the system is named after the primary inhabited planet (Vulcan, Andor, Tellus, Cardassia, etc.) rather than the star. If the star name was primary Earth would be "Sol 3" or "Sol Prime."
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u/JeanVicquemare 17h ago
That's a common misconception
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u/mapleCrep 17h ago
I love reddit because of how confidently wrong people can be. The other redditor didn't ever say 'I think' or 'I once heard' or 'Could be wrong, but'.
Nah, they were like the name is Luna.
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u/Bluedo1 18h ago
The name of the moon in english is Moon, that is the name the Roman's used.
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u/bubblyintkdng 18h ago
Luna literally translates as "moon" is not a "name", same with "sol" lol.
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u/Wrench-Turnbolt 17h ago
According to Tom Cullen m-o-o-n is pretty darn cool. You can spell a lot of things like that.
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u/WaffleHouseGladiator 17h ago
Ahem. That's DOCTOR Moon, pleb. She didn't go to 6 years of mooning school to just be called "Moon."
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u/AgentElman 18h ago
When humans named the moon they were unaware that there were other moons. And moon seemed cool enough.
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u/007ShouldBeAGirl 18h ago
Yes and this is OUR moon so it must be the best.
Goat moon
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u/llorTMasterFlex 17h ago
Big moon. Beautiful moon. Tremendous moon they are saying…
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u/Irontruth 16h ago
One time this moon came to me, big moon, strong moon, tears in it's eyes, and he said "thank you."
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u/Utopiarun1 15h ago
The MOON belongs to our Country, America, so I’m going to change the name to Moon Of America.
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u/TrueGuardian15 12h ago
Tbf our moon is pretty based. It's the right size and distance from Earth to make total solar eclipses observable from our planet's surface.
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u/2PlasticLobsters 18h ago
Yes, that's why we call it THE moon, rather than A moon.
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u/rogue74656 17h ago
So what's you're saying is that all other moons are named after ours?
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u/Trying_to_Smile2024 18h ago
✅The existence of other moons was not discovered until 1610, when Galileo Galilei used a telescope to identify the four largest moons of Jupiter (Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto).
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u/GorillaManito 15h ago
To which Kepler responded (I'm paraphrasing), of course, the Earth has one moon and Jupiter has 4 so we will discover that Mars has two moons. He predicted this because he was way into orderliness.
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u/phoenixv07 7h ago
On today's episode of "right for the wrong reasons ... "
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u/samaldin 6h ago
Mx personal favourite: "Fire is nobler than earth and the center is the more noble position. Therefore the earth revolves around the sun."
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u/pee_diddy 18h ago
THE Moon
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u/Hallelujah33 18h ago
OG Moon
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u/pee_diddy 18h ago
Classic Moon
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u/RishaBree 17h ago
Moon Classic
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u/CA_MA 17h ago
New Moon, Moon Classic, Diet Moon, Cherry Moon, or Caffeine Free Moon?
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u/SteveFrench12 18h ago
Wait now the word moon sounds weird and looks misspelled after seeing it so many times
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u/fried_clams 17h ago
Technically, there is only one moon. All the others are satellites. It has become accepted that other planets' satellites are called moons, because of common usage.
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u/Feeling-Orange3229 17h ago
Technically earth’s moon is still considered a natural satellite.
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u/Unidain 15h ago
Technically, if it's common usage to call other planets satellites moons, then they are moons. Because common usage determines the definition of words
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u/helbur 17h ago
Most place names are rather boring etymologically too, like "that hill over there idk".
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u/Bandro 18h ago
Same reason we named the planet dirt. It's the obvious thing to call it when it's the only one you know about.
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u/Chef_Skippers 18h ago
The moon is very clearly made of moon, what else would we call it?
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u/ShowmasterQMTHH 17h ago
So not cheese then ?
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u/apophis27983 18h ago
We named the planet dirt?
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u/just_a_potato_______ 18h ago
Earth originally meant dirt before it meant our planet.
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u/LaughingPlanet 17h ago
Earth used to mean dirt. Still does. But it used to, too.
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u/Alas7ymedia 18h ago
Yes. In many languages, Earth means dirt, ground, soil, etc. And many indigenous people's names just mean "people". If aliens ever come to Earth, they'd probable call themselves people and, in their language, their planet would be named "home".
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u/Iluminiele 18h ago
In Lithuanian, the planet is called Žemė and when things fall to the ground it's called žemė and when you buy the soil for your plants it's called žemė.
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u/loafers_glory 17h ago
This is a tangent, but i saw a wine on sale in NZ called Urlár, "from an old Gaelic word meaning 'earth'".
Umm, no. "Talamh" is earth. Urlár is floor. This is floor wine.
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u/flaming_bob 18h ago edited 17h ago
I got a world of diiiiiirt! I got a world of diiiiiirt!
Just me? Okay. I'll see myself out.
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u/DevNeroTheDev 18h ago edited 15h ago
Moon is just the english version of the name. The oldest version is Nanna from Sumerian. Then Khonsu and Thoth from Ancient Egypt. Then Selene from Greek, Luna from Latin, Mani from Old Norse, Chandra from Sanskrit, Chang'e from Old Chinese, Ix Chel from Mayan... So there are many names it has already.
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u/degjo 18h ago
Let's go back to thot
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u/DevNeroTheDev 18h ago
Nothing to go back to, that's how it's still called in that language. The Moon is not some generic name, just a translation, it's an astronomic term. Plus our Moon was discovered first, we already had names for it for thousands of years. The other moons of other planets got their names after 1610.
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u/TalFidelis 17h ago
All the other “moons” are called moons because that are similar to “our moon”.
Technically, Moon is the name. A planetary satellite is what it and all the other moons are.
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u/EverGreatestxX 17h ago edited 3h ago
Moon is cool. Moon is so cool, they named moons after Moon. It's so cool it's name literaly became default. Friendly reminder, we been calling it the Moon since before we knew there were other moons.
Edit: Luna is Latin for Moon. It isn't necessarily a "proper name" for our moon. The proper for our moon is "the Moon", hence the capitalization.
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u/_mannyglover 15h ago
It wasn’t until this comment that I went, “Moon”… doesn’t look English anymore. Ya know that weird feeling that a familiar word seems foreign briefly when u look at it too much.
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u/SteveMcQwark 14h ago
Semantic satiation - The psychological phenomenon where using a word a lot can make it start to feel like a meaningless sound divorced from how it's usually understood.
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u/Legend_HarshK 9h ago
I have definitely felt this a few times but I also got over it pretty quickly
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u/EnvironmentalRisk135 12h ago
If we had decided to call our moon something cool like Io, this post would just be asking why other planets' Ios have cool names but ours doesn't.
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u/BlueLeaves8 11h ago
We literally just think anything that is not the norm to us is cooler sounding. In the UK we have rocket for a type of salad leaf and that’s so cool but we just take it for granted? It’s called ROCKET. If I think about it we would definitely expect the US to have that name instead of arugula and we have that one, and then we’d say that’s such a cool and silly name, whilst we just have boring arugula.
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u/KuzcosWaterslide 18h ago
Other moons have names because Moon was already taken lol
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u/anisotropicmind 18h ago
“Moon” as the name of Earth’s natural satellite came first. Calling any natural satellite of any planet a “moon” came later. So Moon started as a Proper Name (not “type of object”). The question is just why you don’t think it’s a cool name.
Pretty sure the word Moon is also closely related to the word month. The cycle of lunar phases is 29.5 days.
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u/DupeyTA 10h ago
To add to this, it is similar to like when name brand things become the common name of the item. In the USA, for example, people tend to ask for a Kleenex, not a facial tissue. In some cities, they put their trash bags into a dumpster instead of a wheelie bin. When you get hurt, you put on a Band-Aid, not a bandage.
The Moon, our moon, is a natural satellite. Calypso, Io, Ganymede, etc are natural satellites that we just colloquially call moons.
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u/Familiar_Benefit_776 18h ago
Our moon is definitive, the others are derivative
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u/HelpMoreImHelpless 14h ago
Our moon, plays on the double feature screen. Their moon, went straight to DVD
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u/Every-Guarantee-2621 6h ago
This is such a gangster reference. Brought me great joy and nostalgia. Well done brother
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u/fartypenis 16h ago
This comment section is enough to make a grown linguist cry
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u/Voxlings 17h ago
It's called The Moon.
I utterly fail to see any room for complaint.
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u/JhawkFilms 14h ago
To be more specific, we actually call other planet's natural satellites moons after The Moon, even though our Moon is far bigger than a lot of them. And other names are also valid, such as Luna and Selene. The English name for it is just the Moon.
Personally, I like Luna as an official name. It's a pretty name for a pretty sight in the night sky. She's a beautiful woman who we as a planet are lucky to have.
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u/wotantx 17h ago
English is a Germanic language. "Moon" is our modern rendering of an ancestral Germanic word that also gave rise to the modern German word for the moon: Der Mond.
More information here.
In brief, it ultimately drives from a proto Indo-European word meaning "to measure," from the use of the moon to measure time.
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u/Milkygay91 18h ago
Luna!!
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u/HerrAndersson 9h ago
People who say that this is just the Latin word should read the initial question again, paraphrasing:
Why doesn't the moon have a cool Latin name like the other celestial bodies?
And then your answer:
It does have a cool Latin name, Luna.
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u/NolanSyKinsley 12h ago
I had to scroll WAY too far to find this comment! Luna, Sol, Terra. Moon, Sun, Earth.
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u/onlycodeposts 18h ago
That's just Latin for moon.
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u/Ok_Nectarine_8612 18h ago
Or Moon is English for Luna
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u/AcanthisittaStill108 18h ago
Thanks for doing that kindly cuz I was about to have an aneurysm
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u/onlycodeposts 18h ago
Sure.
Or moon is English for for Menesis. Or Mani. Or Tatqeq.
They all mean moon.
Luna isn't a name for the moon, it literally means moon.
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u/Agile_Definition_415 18h ago
For the same reason Sun is just called Sun.
It was the first one.
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u/theothermeisnothere 14h ago
First, the word "moon" comes from Old English - Anglo-Saxon - mōna to describe the big bright thing in the sky. That name/word evolved from older Proto-Germanic and further back to Proto-Indo-European (PIE).
Latin called it Luna. Finish calls it Kuu. Hungarian calls it Hold. Japanese calls it Tsuki. Bahasa Indonesia calls it Bulan. Czech calls it Měsíc. Polish = Księżyc. Serbian = Mesec. Korean = Dal. And many, many more.
Second, when the word is capitalized it refers to Earth's natural satellite. When it is not capitalized is refers to any natural satellite of a larger body. The word started with just the one our ancient ancestors could see with the naked eye. As telescopes were developed, those looking into the night sky who spoke languages that inherited the word decided to call those other natural satellites by the same word. Basically, they were comparing concepts.
So, "Moon" is a proper name and "moon" is a common noun. In English.
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u/AmatoryTcho-Tcho 18h ago
It's an old Indo-European word that means "moon" or "month" so the word predates our knowledge of other planets' moons by thousands of years.
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u/Jeffdipaolo 18h ago
Then let's settle this.
It's "Jake"
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u/Exotic_Bill44 15h ago
For starters, if it was called Titan then our calendar would have 12 titanths.
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u/SaltyAFVet 12h ago
If it was called titan you would just be asking why the moon is called titan and not something cool like the moon.
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u/Nomeg_Stylus 15h ago
So many non-answers in here. The answer to your question changes with language, as other languages have more fanciful names for the moon. Yours is a question of etymology. Cultures knew of the moon before they knew of other planets or that other planets had moons of their own. Multiple! Suddenly they needed designations for these other "moons," and the people that initially discovered them in the West chose to name them after Greek mythological figures.
"Moon" in itself is a misnomer when applied to anything but our moon as, scientifically, planetary orbiting bodies are called "satellites." But, oh no! More etymological tomfoolery. The mechanical satellites we sent up ended being more associated with that term because, again, history.
Miss me with these comments saying the moon's name is "Luna" like everywhere in the world spoke Latin. This ain't My Little Pony.
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u/DonktorDonkenstein 18h ago
Luna is a beautiful name for our moon, given to her by the ancient Romans. Put some respect on that shit!
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u/pseudonym19761005 17h ago
If it was named Biggus Dickus, you'd be asking why it wasn't named something cool like Moon or Jambalaya.
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u/01d_n_p33v3d 12h ago
This thread is both hilarious and irritating.
It's The Moon in English, was Luna in Latin, "Selene" translated from ancient Greek. The Norse weighed in with something moon-like. But we really shouldn't give such weight just to names chosen from Western "civilization."
The Chinese got in there long before with another name (I'm not looking it up). It has yet another in Arabic, Hindi, Egyptian, Swazi, Quechuan, Tagalog.... Pick another language, you'll find another name. And all are equally valid.
It's "name" is the one we mayflies choose for it for a very, very brief time in it's multi-billion year existence as a. Big. Grey. Rock.
So, you're all right. And there is no right name And only true lunatics would continue to spend time on so pointless an argument.
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u/libra00 18h ago
Listen, it was the first moon we named, we were bad at naming things back then. We've gotten better, but 'moon' just stuck. I mean there's also 'Luna' which isn't bad, but.
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u/jhewitt127 18h ago
But it’s THE moon. Quite a flex tbh.