this post was submitted on 22 Oct 2025
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Science Memes

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Oh no my harvest is too bountiful (lemmy.dbzer0.com)
submitted 4 weeks ago by Stamets@lemmy.dbzer0.com to c/science_memes@mander.xyz
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[–] ShinkanTrain@lemmy.ml 211 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

Start pronouncing it 'nucular', there's no bigger turn off.

[–] Banana@sh.itjust.works 42 points 3 weeks ago (4 children)

RIGHT?! I'm glad I'm not the only one. It's based on the term NUCLEUS ffs.

[–] Venus_Ziegenfalle@feddit.org 104 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Common misconception but it's actually based on Saint Nukulus, the guy that puts uranium in your boots if you leave them out overnight.

[–] Lumidaub@feddit.org 18 points 3 weeks ago

Did you know he was a real-life engineer in ancient Turducky?

[–] ShinkanTrain@lemmy.ml 24 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

Now, to be fair, nucleus it comes from the latin nuculus. It just that it sounds bad and feels bad to say

[–] altphoto@lemmy.today 9 points 3 weeks ago

Yes officer, she touched my nuculus.

[–] Banana@sh.itjust.works 7 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

Noooooo my whole worldviewww

[–] blibla@slrpnk.net 9 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

dw it's not true, you were right, "nucleus" is already latin

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nucleus?wprov=sfla1

[–] Banana@sh.itjust.works 5 points 3 weeks ago

Oh no being told I'm right is my fetish 👀

[–] Malgas@beehaw.org 30 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (3 children)

Fun fact: "nuclear" ultimately comes from the Latin nucula, 'little nut'. The c and l being adjacent is the result of metathesis, similar to pronouncing "ask" as "ax".

[–] Schmoo@slrpnk.net 9 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Now go further back. Where does the latin word nucula come from?

[–] Lux@lemmy.blahaj.zone 16 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

went further back lol

Latin: Nux - nut nuculus - diminutive of nut ("little nut")

Proto-Indo-European: kneu - nut

I can't find much on where the -culus suffix originated, which seams to be the the place we would want to look if trying to tie the pronunciation of nuclear to the earliest etymological root.

[–] GandalftheBlack@feddit.org 8 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

-ulus according to Wiktionary:
From Proto-Italic *-elos (whence Faliscan -𐌄𐌋𐌏𐌔 (-elos)), from Proto-Indo-European *-elós, thematized from Proto-Indo-European *-lós.[1] Cognate with Proto-Germanic *-ilaz and *-ulaz, whence no longer productive English -le (as in dimple and nozzle), Dutch -el, German -el.

So the PIE for little nut would be something like *knewelós

[–] harmbugler@piefed.social 7 points 3 weeks ago

I don’t think the nuclear engineer wants the furries to know about ‘little nut’

[–] Jerkface@lemmy.world 1 points 3 weeks ago

Stop, you're gonna make me nux!

[–] Hudell@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 3 weeks ago

Is that because we exist within a nut?

Or something like that, I don't know. I don't remember anything from the "the universe in a nutshell" book.