Just so there's no confusion

https://toast.ooo/post/12364736

This is why I say a much more interesting question is what came first, the chicken or the chicken egg?

It entirely depends on your definition of a chicken egg. Is a chicken egg an egg that hatches a chicken, or an egg that is laid by a chicken? If it is an egg that hatches a chicken then the chicken egg came first, but if it is an egg that is laid by a chicken then the chicken came first

That’s a language-dependent ambiguity; this sort of “noun¹ noun²” construction in English is actually rather vague, and it can be used multiple ways:

  • material - e.g. fish fillet (the fillet is made of fish)
  • purpose - e.g. fish knife (the knife is made to handle fish)
  • destination - e.g. fish food (the food goes to the fish)
  • inalienable possession - e.g. fish tail (the tail belongs to the fish, and removing it means removing part of the fish)
  • alienable possession - e.g. fish bowl (the bowl “belongs” to the fish, but you could give it another bowl)
  • etc.

As such I believe that in at least some languages it’s probably clear if you refer to chicken egg as “an egg coming from a chicken” or “an egg a chicken is born from”. Not that they’re going to use it with this expression though.

For reference. @[email protected] used as an example “my penis”:

If I say “my penis”, it is likelier that I am talking about the one attached to me rather than the one I bought in the market.

In Nahuatl both would be distinguished: you’d call your genitals “notepollo” (inalienable possession), and the one you bought “notepol” (alienable possession). (Note: “no-” for the first person. For someone else’s dick use “mo-” when speaking with the person, i- when talking about them.)

Just language things, I guess.

TIL I learned to refer to my penises (both of them) in Nahuatl, Thank you!!!

Relevant to note I don’t speak Nahuatl. I parsed this info from Wiktionary + Wikipedia, it’s surprisingly easy to follow.

(For the non-possessed form, as in “a penis is an organ”, use “tepolli” instead. Wiktionary also mentions “tototl” bird being used with that meaning, kind of like English “cock”.)