30Jan/1257
Etymology-Man
by Jeff
Image text: 'I can't believe I'm saying this, but I wish Aquaman were here instead--HE'D be able to help.'
This comic is a take on the traditional appearance of a super hero when a disaster strikes. In this case, Etymology-Man arrives, who apparently has the power of Etymology which is the study of the history of words, their origins, and how their form and meaning have changed over time. As Etymology-Man is explaining the history of the words tsunami and tidal wave while the water starts rising towards them.
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January 30th, 2012
Also, the image text is a play on how useless Aquaman is compared to other superheros…
January 30th, 2012
Yeah. I mean, not many superheroes control 3/4 of the world and can whip up a serious tidal wave pretty much whenever he wants to. I mean, it’s not like he’s got super-ventriloquism and or a belt full of gadgets and a cool car.
January 31st, 2012
Yeah, but he still is like a Merman riding a sea horse… LOL
January 31st, 2012
As opposed to a flying rodent with a penchant for underage sidekicks…
February 6th, 2012
Bats aren’t rodents.
But I see your point.
January 30th, 2012
Oddly enough, he also appears to have the power of flight, so he could help move them to safety. However it seems that etymology-man perceives the real danger to be ignorance, leaving Megan to save herself in the final frame.
In defense of etymology-man, it is not always easy to know when to let new morphisms replace older dialects. So I say just go with the flow or tsunami or tidal wave or whichever phrase the most people in your intended audience will understand.
I had a similar experience with the phrase “intents and purposes.”
I have heard it expressed as “intended purposes” and even “intensive purposes.” I’ve just quit using the phrase since I can’t bring myself to use “intended purposes” and I don’t care for the odd looks I get when I use the original “intents and purposes.”
And don’t get me started on “I could care less”…
January 30th, 2012
I’m really, really glad someone else has a variation on that phrase. I’d been saying “intensive purposes” forever until one day one of my professors kindly corrected me in an email, noting that it was “intents and purposes.” I felt so dumb but could have sworn I’d seen/heard it like I was spelling it. Oh well, lol.
January 30th, 2012
The fact you felt dumb is a good thing, at least that means you realized your error and felt bad about it. I hate when people just pretend their way is correct because it’s what they’ve always said.
There wouldn’t be a problem with this stuff if people just admitted they got the wording wrong and try to fix their usage in the future. Instead we just get people who yell, “WHO CARES, YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN” and continue to use the wrong phrase even though they know it’s wrong.
January 30th, 2012
I could care less when people say “I could care less.” I know what they mean, but what they say is the opposite of what they think they mean. And I really could care less – I could let it fly by instead of bugging me so much.
“Intended purposes” I can let slide with no pain, as to all intents and purposes it means almost the same thing. I have never heard anyone use “intensive purposes” before, but if I did it would probably make me grin.
Hmmm… “Technically he’s just the assistant mananger, but to all intensive purposes he’s the boss. The manager lets him make all the calls.” “So he’s the boss only when there are intensive purposes… like when a tsunami is about to crush the store? That would be an intensive purpose.”
January 30th, 2012
leaving Megan to save herself
Not to be nit-picky, but unless Megan changed her hair color and style, I think that is another character. Not sure if she’s being introduced or revisited.
January 30th, 2012
I think that’s the female scientist.
January 30th, 2012
You, and the others who replied to you, might be interested in The Eggcorn Database. It’s a compilation of common words and phrases that are misused by people who likely learned them by mis-hearing them instead of having learned them by reading them. They have multiple citations of people using these mis-heard words and phrases in print. “For all intensive purposes” is certainly in there, as are “taken for granite”, “mood point”, “crutch of the matter”, and “far-gone conclusion”, among many others.
The name of the site derives from some who think the word “acorn” is actually “eggcorn” (which kind of makes sense, if you think about it.)
Here’s a link: http://eggcorns.lascribe.net/
January 30th, 2012
I always liked the Joey Tribiani variation on “moot point”:
“That’s a moo point.”
“Huh? It’s a what?”
“It’s like a cow’s opinion. It’s moo.”
January 30th, 2012
Thanks. I had to smile at some of those…
layman terms >> lame man’s terms
cease and desist >> seize and desist
nip in the bud >> nip in the butt
I think the reason that I can’t stop focusing on these types of phrases is that I’ve had to relearn so many of them due to my childhood being rife with family members using butchered phrases.
Nothing will lower your grades in college quicker than writing “It supposably don’t matter.” Apparently it does…
January 31st, 2012
Hey! maybe you can help me with this (my first language is Spanish)… I have always thought that “Please don’t mind in asking me for more information…” means something like: “I don’t need you to ask me more questions so please just don’t do it…”…
Thanks in advance and… please don’t mind in asking me more because I have nothing else to say…
January 31st, 2012
I guess you could look at “don’t mind” like a double negative. To mind something can mean to to feel unhappy or upset about something. So to not mind something means to not feel unhappy or upset by doing something. In saying “Please don’t mind in asking me for more information” you are saying “Please feel happy or comfortable in asking me for more information.”
February 1st, 2012
“to mind” generally means “to (take) care” or “to pay attention”, and “not to mind doing something” can be to care if that something might be unappropriate or annoying others. As an imperative, like in your case, it is an invitation to do it, i.e. asking for said information in your example.
“I do no mind” could also mean “I could not care less” which expresses strong disinterest.
January 30th, 2012
This is from Wikipedia and I think it describes exactly the source of the image text:
“A parody of Aquaman appears in season 7 episode 4 “Baby Not on Board” of “Family Guy”. In this episode, Aquaman helplessly watches from the ocean as a man attacks a woman on the beach. He yells empty threats and throws a starfish at the man but can’t do anything as his powers are limited to the water only.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aquaman#In_other_media
January 30th, 2012
Aquaman has been mocked in other media, and there’s nothing specific in the family guy episode that seems refereneced here. In a halloween episode of The Big Bang Theory, the guys dress up as the Justice League of America, and no one wants to be Aquaman because ‘Aquaman sucks’.
January 30th, 2012
Of course, actually his powers aren’t limited to water. The guy can survive at the bottom of the ocean. That takes some serious muscles and durability. If he wanted he could simply walk onto the beach (because riding atop a blue whale on a cresting 30 foot wave would be overkill) and knock any offender a couple miles inland.
But Family Guy couldn’t make their “joke” if they didn’t misrepresent that.
January 30th, 2012
Wait, Wait, Wait … What’s really important is … Who’s the hot blonde chick? Is she available?
February 1st, 2012
That’s Joanna.
Try to go online and she’ll melt your PC.
http://xkcd.com/322/
January 30th, 2012
Okay, so in the comic, according to Jeff’s explanation, an etymologic disaster strikes. Well.
If that’s the case, Jeff needs Syntax Man for his last sentence, which he built entirely of subordinate clauses. Syntax Man would simply remove one of the conjunctions (p.r.n. put a comma instead).
January 31st, 2012
You’re referring to the one that starts “But let’s be a tad less giddy”? A conjunction grammatically may begin an independent clause, and the clauses following the dash are within the same sentence: the dash indicates a greater break than a comma in informal writing. A semicolon could have been used instead and would be in formal writing.
January 31st, 2012
He was referring to Jeff’s explanation, not to the comic. The one starting with:
“As Etymology-Man is explaining…”
and continues/concludes with:
“…while the water starts rising towards them.”
As, and while, but no actual conclusion. Get rid of the word “while”, and “the water starts rising” could be a fine conclusion.
January 30th, 2012
On a side note, Aquaman was always my favorite hero as a child, because he was friends with whales and sharks and could stay underwater indefinitely. My limit was 1 minute, because any longer and my mom would freak out and drag me out of the pool…
January 30th, 2012
If memory serves, Aquaman could also control the actions of sea creatures. Why is it the ability to control animals a superheroic trait, but the ability to control humans monsterous?
January 30th, 2012
I always thought that Aquaman could communicate with sea creatures, and out of the respect and love they held for him they would cooperate. And that that respect and love was reciprocated with Aquaman often serving as their protector and advocate in human affairs.
Truly a task requiring a superhuman effort giving our “out of sight, out of mind mentality”.
January 30th, 2012
It depends. Per wikipedia:
“Aquaman’s most widely recognized power is the telepathic ability to communicate with marine life, which he can summon from great distances. Although this power is most often and most easily used on marine life, Aquaman has at times demonstrated the ability to affect any being that lives upon the sea (e.g., sea eagles), or even any being evolved from marine life (e.g., humans). As per the 2011 DC continuity reboot, Aquaman’s telepathy has been greatly downplayed: acknowledging that most marine life doesn’t possess enough intelligence to carry a meaningful telepathic communication, Aquaman is now stated to simply add compulsions and needs in the mindset of aquatic life, compelling them to do his bidding by a subtle altering of their midbrain”
March 3rd, 2012
I cannot believe you guys use wikipedia as the definitive source for anything… anyone can edit it, and you guys should know this.
February 2nd, 2012
I think you mean “given” in your last sentence. Now I’m not trying to change any standards…
January 30th, 2012
Because animals are not sapient? Controlling a dog isn’t effectively any different then training one, just faster.
January 30th, 2012
Wow, Etymology Man has struck again. I have actually started to re-think my position on tsunami v. tidal-wave due to his well reasoned historical and descriptive argument.
January 30th, 2012
Hey, at least it wasn’t Entomology Man who showed up, he’d be even more worthless in this situation.
[Which is not to imply that entomology is useless, just that it's an even less appropriate science to apply to an approaching big-ass wave (which I think should be the official technical term for a tidal wave/tsunami/harbor wave) than etymology.]
January 30th, 2012
My hobby: rewriting that as “big ass-wave.”
And Plussing you for the entomology, man.
Hey there’s a Sploosh in the comic! Anyone else notice the Sploosh?
January 30th, 2012
I see a sploosh and a swoosh.
February 3rd, 2012
You see, sploosh comes from an ancient Greek word …
February 3rd, 2012
And stupid me read it as “Entymology” man and thought of insects, even though that’s not the right spelling!
And not just once, no, three times. It was only when I got to Jeff’s explanation that I saw my mistake and the appearance of E-man finally made sense.
Sometimes I find it hard to understand how I’m still alive.
January 30th, 2012
Etymology Man reminds me of a real-life person who would rather sit around and talk about semantics instead of actually doing something about the problem at hand. All of you probably know a real-life Etymology Man.
January 30th, 2012
Etymology-man must speak very fast at the end, in respect with a tsunami wave speed.
January 30th, 2012
Is it weird that on occasion I start telling people random etymologies? The last time I did I was telling a group of people the prepoted origens of the America(?) O.K (Okay). I no longer wonder why I don’t have a girfriend… does anyone want to know my ideas on Okay? huh?
January 30th, 2012
“prepoted origens ” ?
January 30th, 2012
teleported organs?
January 30th, 2012
I’m in favor of any law that bans teleportation of organs. That’s just one less thing to worry about.
January 30th, 2012
So I misspelled ‘origins’ and ‘purported’, you didn’t mention “…of the America…” when I meant “American”. Funny “eggcorn” fact, I spelled “purported” as I have come to hear it pronounced (or Prone ounced)! Help us Etymology Man your Ark enemy “Alliteration man” is robbing the banks blind! (can you spot the misused words in that sentance?)
March 3rd, 2012
You mean arch-nemesis?
February 17th, 2012
You most have heared of HotForWords (Marina Orlova), maybe she would date you.
January 30th, 2012
What exactly is Etymology-Man crashing through in panel 3?
January 31st, 2012
The Fourth Wall.
March 3rd, 2012
Which could imply that this person is someone irl…
January 30th, 2012
Why nothing about the reference to the 1755 Lisbon earthquake? It’s one of THE deadliest earthquakes in history, the epicenter of which happened on the Azores-Gibraltar fault, which sent not only a devastating quake, but a huge TIDAL WAVE that killed thousands upon thousands of people in both Portugal and Morocco. It’s estimated that the quake was at or around an 8.5-9.0 in the Moment magnitude scale (close to the 2011 Tohoku earthquake/tidal wave combination in Japan that we all likely remember).
More about the Lisbon quake: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1755_Lisbon_earthquake
January 31st, 2012
I know that is his arm but it sure looks like Etymology Man is really “happy”.
February 1st, 2012
I wonder if Randall comes in here once in a while just to see what his fans have wrung out of his comic that he never thought about while drawing it.
February 1st, 2012
This is kind of a rip off of the old Cyanide & Happiness meme. Guess Randall should add it to his favorites list.
February 2nd, 2012
That’s what I thought. C&H has had not-really-superhero-related gags like this for ages, I think this comic is a little wink at them.
February 2nd, 2012
I almost feel like it is related to the older perl comic which had a not-very-super superhero.
February 6th, 2012
Did anyone notice that the wave in the comic actually isn’t a tsunami? Instead, it’s one that is “rearing up and breaking like surfing waves,” as mentioned in the comic. I find that interesting.