this post was submitted on 19 Oct 2025
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Showerthoughts

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A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. The most popular seem to be lighthearted clever little truths, hidden in daily life.

Here are some examples to inspire your own showerthoughts:

Rules

  1. All posts must be showerthoughts
  2. The entire showerthought must be in the title
  3. No politics
    • If your topic is in a grey area, please phrase it to emphasize the fascinating aspects, not the dramatic aspects. You can do this by avoiding overly politicized terms such as "capitalism" and "communism". If you must make comparisons, you can say something is different without saying something is better/worse.
    • A good place for politics is c/politicaldiscussion
  4. Posts must be original/unique
  5. Adhere to Lemmy's Code of Conduct and the TOS

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Whats it like to be a mod? Reports just show up as messages in your Lemmy inbox, and if a different mod has already addressed the report, the message goes away and you never worry about it.

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[–] Chais@sh.itjust.works 33 points 2 days ago (1 children)

To detract from the confusion the European Union is Union Européenne (UE) in French.

[–] zlatiah@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago

I thought it would be so funny if any of the EU employees would go to a bar in Brussels (majority French-speaking) and have an aneurysm explaining what they do to a local in broken French. Not that it would ever happen... but it would be funny

[–] lemmyknow@lemmy.today 16 points 2 days ago

ITT: Americans struggling to comprehend languages other than their own

[–] aarch0x40@lemmy.world 49 points 2 days ago (2 children)

That's why they use EUA (États-Unis d'Amérique) for the abbreviation.

[–] Hadriscus@jlai.lu 21 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I have to say I had never encountered this abbreviated form

[–] RickyRigatoni@retrolemmy.com 2 points 1 day ago

Fake french. Get 'em, boys.

But we tend to forget de A so just ÉU

[–] paequ2@lemmy.today 39 points 2 days ago (2 children)

In Spanish you can see EEUU for «Estados Unidos». The letters are doubled because they're plural.

[–] BobbyGasoline@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

I still pronounce it as Eeeh Eeeh Uu Uu. Its just fun to say.

[–] AnarchoEngineer@lemmy.dbzer0.com 18 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I’ve always wondered why spanish speakers online use EEUU for the US. I once asked a friend of mine and he said “that’s just the way it is”; this is a much better explanation lol

[–] captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

A bit like how we used to call the CCCP the USSR?

[–] Goodlucksil@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

The official name for the country was "Unión de Repúblicas Socialistas Soviéticas", hence URSS

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[–] KSPAtlas@sopuli.xyz 6 points 2 days ago (1 children)

In Polish, "United States" is Stany Zjednoczone, but the acronym is USA, even though that doesn't match up at all

[–] Michal@programming.dev 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)
[–] Revan343@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 day ago

Union Européenne as well, and French is one of the languages they actually care about

[–] TheJesusaurus@piefed.ca 6 points 2 days ago

Um..... It is an acronym my guy. How do you think French people write USA?

[–] foggy@lemmy.world 19 points 2 days ago (8 children)

I am forever annoyed that every language has the audacity to rename other countries to something that is not their name.

Germany? It's called Deutschland

Spain? España.

Russia? Rossiya.

It's everywhere and it's weird.

[–] dubyakay@lemmy.ca 4 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Because no one can say Magyarország, and it's easier to make fun of being Hungary for Turkey.

[–] foggy@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

Oman, Iran, with Chad, to Chile bc I was Hungary for Turkey 😋

[–] pedz@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 day ago

The Netherlands, but in English the language is called Dutch.

But I prefer when it happens to cities. Aix-la-Chapelle or Aachen. Liège or Luik or Lüttich. Ghent or Gand or Gent.

[–] megrania@discuss.tchncs.de 5 points 2 days ago

Dunno, as a German, I'd find it ahistorical if everybody was using "Deutschland" ... the nation-state as an idea, and a unified nation state, are relatively young. Before that, what we call Deutschland today was a mess. It's no surprise that romance languages use some or another variation of "Allemagne" ... the german dialect spoken around the southwestern border is still called "Allemannisch" even in Germany, same with "Saxon" and the variations "Saksa" to the east ...

I kinda prefer it the way it is in this case, honestly ...

[–] Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world 13 points 2 days ago (4 children)
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[–] justOnePersistentKbinPlease@fedia.io 9 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Russia == Rossiya doesn't belong in that list.

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[–] shalafi@lemmy.world 4 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I'm annoyed by the inverse. I speak English, why shouldn't I use English words? I use English words for everything else in life. Does every other country say "United States of America"?

"Because that's what I call it and so should every other language!"

See how that sounds?

[–] spongebue@lemmy.world 5 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

And honestly, some of them do just translate (more or less). Like España vs Spain, pretty much any Spanish word that starts with es(consonant) drops the leading e when translated to English (estado, estudiante, and escuela for state, student, and school). We also don't have the same o/a suffices. So that leaves spañ, except I don't think any Spanish word ends with ñ (it makes a "ny" sound to bridge with the next letter, for those who don't know) and Spain comes pretty darn close.

Not too mention that pronunciations and even alphabets are bound to change. Just how much do you want to stay authentic? Because if I start talking about عُمان (Google says that means Oman in Arabic, and looks about right from what I remember seeing on license plates there) I'm going to lose a lot of people.

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[–] FishFace@piefed.social 2 points 2 days ago

And while we're at it, why do languages have the audacity to use ANY words different from other languages!

See how this sounds?

[–] DrunkenPirate@feddit.org 5 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Im happy with it. Better than 中国 or .مصر No idea how to read nor how to speak it out.

[–] hera@feddit.uk 8 points 2 days ago (1 children)

A transliteration would be fine, eg Nihon, Zhongguo

[–] shalafi@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago

Is that what my wife was trying to say?

https://old.lemmy.world/comment/20033856

Fuck it. Japan it is.

[–] WereCat@lemmy.world 8 points 2 days ago (4 children)

So “Etats” is “State”… just written backwards?

[–] Witchfire@lemmy.world 13 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (2 children)

Ah alors tu as découvert comment est-ce que le français fonctionne. Désolé pas désolé

[–] eskimofry@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago (2 children)

ah so you have discovered in your comment how french functions.

what's Desole?

[–] Randelung@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago

It's when you remove the bottom of a shoe.

[–] KumaLumaJuma@feddit.uk 3 points 2 days ago (6 children)

Sorry.. it says sorry not sorry 😅😅

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[–] SomethingBurger@jlai.lu 7 points 2 days ago

"États" is "States" ☝️🤓

[–] pedz@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 day ago

If you want to be serious, the word state and état are both coming from an older version of French when it was written estat. French replaced ES with É because it wasn't pronouncing the S, while English dropped the E and kept pronouncing the S. It happened to multiple words, although some also come from Latin.

Étrange - Strange. Époux - Spouse. École - School. Épice - Spice. Éponge - Sponge.

It also happened with circumflex.

Hôpital - Hospital. Forêt - Forest. Pâte - Paste.

Here's a whole video about exactly this.

[–] hansolo@lemmy.today 7 points 2 days ago

In Serbo-Croatian, the acronym is САД. It transliterates to SAD.

[–] CarbonIceDragon@pawb.social 7 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Shouldn't Spanish have the same problem? I've seen them abbreviate it to EEUU though, which I assume must help prevent confusion?

[–] emmanuel_car@fedia.io 2 points 2 days ago

Same as another user said, in Spanish European Union is Unión Europea, so abbreviates to UE, and you’re right about EEUU, because it’s the United States

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