• Mediocre_Bard@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    Huh, TIL.

    The whale’s common name originated during the heyday of the commercial whaling industry, from the end of the 18th century through the 19th century. The head of the sperm whale contains an enormous fluid-filled organ (which whalers called the case). During whale harvests, this organ, now called the spermaceti organ, was discovered to contain a white liquid that whalers mistook for the sperm of the whale. The spermaceti organ is unique to sperm whales, although bottlenose whales possess a similar organ. It has a volume as large as 2,000 liters (530 gallons) and can extend through 40 percent of the whale’s length.

    https://www.britannica.com/story/how-did-the-sperm-whale-get-its-name

  • janNatan@lemmy.ml
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    2 days ago

    It’s short for spermaceti whale.

    Spermaceti is the name of the oil they produce for buoyancy/echolocation. Why is it called that? Because it was originally thought to be whale semen. Yes, really.

  • Nioxic@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    2 days ago

    it’s called “kaskelothval” in danish

    kastelot supposedly means “oil-filled head”

    that oil is called “spermaceti oil”. And supposedly is kinda sticky… like sperm

    • Remember_the_tooth@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      “Okay, we need a name for this one, too.”

      “Bushtit.”

      [Sigh] “Fine. And this one?”

      [Snickering] “Blue footed booby.”

      “Ugh, but why?.”

      “It’s got blue feet.”

      “Whatever. How about this one?”

      “Titmouse.”

      “I think I’m starting to see a pattern here. Is everything okay at home?”

      [Bursts into tears] “No! Not since this one.” [Hands other person a photo] “I call that one ‘horrible shrew that ruined my life!’” [Sobbing]

      [Other person holding the photo of the ex-partner]

    • psud@aussie.zone
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      1 day ago

      Tit just used to mean small. That’s how the word came to be used for some boobs, then all boobs. Perhaps teat (nipple) got shortened also, but the bird is named for being small

      There’s also the titmouse which is littler than other mice

  • Zerush@lemmy.ml
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    2 days ago

    I’m interested of the reason to call an prehistoric elephant Tit tooth (Mastodon)

  • neuracnu@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    2 days ago

    Just gonna leave this here…

    As I sat there at my ease, cross-legged on the deck; after the bitter exertion at the windlass; under a blue tranquil sky; the ship under indolent sail, and gliding so serenely along; as I bathed my hands among those soft, gentle globules of infiltrated tissues, wove almost within the hour; as they richly broke to my fingers, and discharged all their opulence, like fully ripe grapes their wine; as. I snuffed up that uncontaminated aroma,- literally and truly, like the smell of spring violets; I declare to you, that for the time I lived as in a musky meadow; I forgot all about our horrible oath; in that inexpressible sperm, I washed my hands and my heart of it; I almost began to credit the old Paracelsan superstition that sperm is of rare virtue in allaying the heat of anger; while bathing in that bath, I felt divinely free from all ill-will, or petulance, or malice, of any sort whatsoever.

    Squeeze! squeeze! squeeze! all the morning long; I squeezed that sperm till I myself almost melted into it; I squeezed that sperm till a strange sort of insanity came over me; and I found myself unwittingly squeezing my co-laborers’ hands in it, mistaking their hands for the gentle globules. Such an abounding, affectionate, friendly, loving feeling did this avocation beget; that at last I was continually squeezing their hands, and looking up into their eyes sentimentally; as much as to say,- Oh! my dear fellow beings, why should we longer cherish any social acerbities, or know the slightest ill-humor or envy! Come; let us squeeze hands all round; nay, let us all squeeze ourselves into each other; let us squeeze ourselves universally into the very milk and sperm of kindness.

    Would that I could keep squeezing that sperm for ever! For now, since by many prolonged, repeated experiences, I have perceived that in all cases man must eventually lower, or at least shift, his conceit of attainable felicity; not placing it anywhere in the intellect or the fancy; but in the wife, the heart, the bed, the table, the saddle, the fire-side; the country; now that I have perceived all this, I am ready to squeeze case eternally. In thoughts of the visions of the night, I saw long rows of angels in paradise, each with his hands in a jar of spermaceti.

      • EpeeGnome@feddit.online
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        2 days ago

        I can’t see the thumbnail, but I could already hear the Ryan George character in my head just from reading the image text, so when I saw a youtube link I assumed it had to be one of those skits.