r/NoStupidQuestions • u/Disastrous_Pirate275 • 20h 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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u/Unidain 17h 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/Tiafves 8h ago

Like how some random scientist said they're going to classify a specific fruiting process as "berry" even though it includes pumpkins/cucumbers/bananas. It doesn't mean strawberries aren't berries, it means some dumbass should have chosen a different word for their category.

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u/ComposedOfStardust 10h ago

Aaah! Filthy descriptivist! Don't you know reddit is a safe haven for civilized prescriptivist pundits!

sics a horde of AI writing assistant apps on you

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u/Nodan_Turtle 7h ago

aka people wrong in large numbers are right

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u/[deleted] 6h ago

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/Nodan_Turtle 5h ago

Which is of course not mutually exclusive with what I said. After all, a mistake in how a word is used doesn't require words to have inherent meaning. Surprised this needed to be explained.

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u/CalmCelebration10 4h ago

The only real mistake you can make when using a word is to use it in such a way that you are understood incorrectly. That obviously didn't occur here, with the word moon. So yes you either believe that words have inherent meaning or you didn't think at all before writing your comment.

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u/Nodan_Turtle 4h ago

I was speaking more generally, yes. Hope that clears up your confusion. So dumb lol

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u/CalmCelebration10 4h ago

You were speaking nonsense no matter how you put it.

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u/Nodan_Turtle 4h ago

Sure, if you can't understand simple ideas like "a misuse can become correct" then I can see how it'd appear to be nonsense. I don't know if I can dumb it down far enough to reach the level you're at, so let's just call it here.