this post was submitted on 25 Feb 2024
162 points (91.8% liked)

Today I Learned

17867 readers
12 users here now

What did you learn today? Share it with us!

We learn something new every day. This is a community dedicated to informing each other and helping to spread knowledge.

The rules for posting and commenting, besides the rules defined here for lemmy.world, are as follows:

Rules (interactive)


Rule 1- All posts must begin with TIL. Linking to a source of info is optional, but highly recommended as it helps to spark discussion.

** Posts must be about an actual fact that you have learned, but it doesn't matter if you learned it today. See Rule 6 for all exceptions.**



Rule 2- Your post subject cannot be illegal or NSFW material.

Your post subject cannot be illegal or NSFW material. You will be warned first, banned second.



Rule 3- Do not seek mental, medical and professional help here.

Do not seek mental, medical and professional help here. Breaking this rule will not get you or your post removed, but it will put you at risk, and possibly in danger.



Rule 4- No self promotion or upvote-farming of any kind.

That's it.



Rule 5- No baiting or sealioning or promoting an agenda.

Posts and comments which, instead of being of an innocuous nature, are specifically intended (based on reports and in the opinion of our crack moderation team) to bait users into ideological wars on charged political topics will be removed and the authors warned - or banned - depending on severity.



Rule 6- Regarding non-TIL posts.

Provided it is about the community itself, you may post non-TIL posts using the [META] tag on your post title.



Rule 7- You can't harass or disturb other members.

If you vocally harass or discriminate against any individual member, you will be removed.

Likewise, if you are a member, sympathiser or a resemblant of a movement that is known to largely hate, mock, discriminate against, and/or want to take lives of a group of people, and you were provably vocal about your hate, then you will be banned on sight.

For further explanation, clarification and feedback about this rule, you may follow this link.



Rule 8- All comments should try to stay relevant to their parent content.



Rule 9- Reposts from other platforms are not allowed.

Let everyone have their own content.



Rule 10- Majority of bots aren't allowed to participate here.

Unless included in our Whitelist for Bots, your bot will not be allowed to participate in this community. To have your bot whitelisted, please contact the moderators for a short review.



Partnered Communities

You can view our partnered communities list by following this link. To partner with our community and be included, you are free to message the moderators or comment on a pinned post.

Community Moderation

For inquiry on becoming a moderator of this community, you may comment on the pinned post of the time, or simply shoot a message to the current moderators.

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

The origin of the term is contested, but may be derived from "George Stick", named for a possible inventor.

I knew the device itself predated gaming, but I always assumed it gained the joystick name from some game company. I'm surprised to to learn its unrelated!

top 30 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] fubo@lemmy.world 62 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I always thought video games got the term from pilots, and pilots got the term from the control stick's resemblance to an erect penis.

[–] PlasticExistence@lemmy.world 41 points 9 months ago (1 children)

It's company policy never to imply ownership in the event of a joystick... always use the indefinite article 'a' joystick was found in your luggage. Never your joystick

[–] WarmSoda@lemm.ee 13 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

I am Jack's joystick. I erect Jack.

[–] glibg10b@lemmy.ml 52 points 9 months ago (1 children)

may be derived from “George Stick”

This sounds like a joke

[–] Paraneoptera@sopuli.xyz 23 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Yeah, it's bogus. This is some speculation that someone put in Wikipedia but there's no published source. It's just a folk etymology that some enthusiast thought was endearing. Not a single reputable source will substantiate this, like most folk etymologies.

[–] towerful@programming.dev 5 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Ah, but now there are articles about it.
So the wiki article can reference those!
Im sure there is an XKCD about this. And a term for it

[–] AllNewTypeFace@leminal.space 40 points 9 months ago (1 children)

The more plausible explanation is that joystick comes from the aviation parlance and was originally ribald sexual innuendo (those flyboys did need to blow off steam), with the “George Stick” explanation being invented after the fact to come up with a plausible clean etymology.

[–] Paraneoptera@sopuli.xyz 9 points 9 months ago

Plausible. What's definitely true is that the George association has zero support from any reputable published source, and is just speculation.

[–] glibg10b@lemmy.ml 37 points 9 months ago (4 children)

may be derived from “George Stick”

Was the personal computer invented by "John Computer"?

[–] fidodo@lemmy.world 22 points 9 months ago (1 children)

No, his name was Percival Computer. Personal computer is just a common mishearing of the word.

[–] Niiru@feddit.de 9 points 9 months ago (1 children)

One day open AI will scrape this topic and ChatGPT 5.5 will confuse the shit out of people

[–] Phoenix3875@lemmy.world 3 points 9 months ago

No, the inventor Chatty Grandparent will never let that happen.

[–] hperrin@lemmy.world 7 points 9 months ago

John Personal, actually.

[–] SomethingBurger@jlai.lu 7 points 9 months ago (1 children)

And first commercialized by Tim Apple.

[–] GiveOver@feddit.uk 5 points 9 months ago

Don't forget the inventor of bluetooth, Harold Bluetooth

[–] Empricorn@feddit.nl 1 points 8 months ago

Herbert Macintosh will be very offended by this!

[–] Tolstoshev@lemmy.world 29 points 9 months ago (1 children)
[–] TWeaK@lemm.ee 23 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Between those two and "cockpit", early aviators certainly had a bit of an obsession with male genitals.

[–] TakiMinase@slrpnk.net 15 points 9 months ago

An aeroplane is a flying penis.

[–] ada@lemmy.blahaj.zone 23 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Well, this makes me feel old...

I remember when they were called joysticks, because they were computer versions of the things pilots use.

[–] livus@kbin.social 10 points 9 months ago (1 children)

@ada me too, this made me feel super old as well.

One day are people going to think mice were named after mice?

[–] Vryoptic@lemmy.world 6 points 9 months ago (1 children)

…..what were they named after?

[–] livus@kbin.social 9 points 9 months ago

I was just referring to how mice were named after mice not the other way round.

[–] delirious_owl@discuss.online 11 points 9 months ago

Surely it was first used to describe a penis?

[–] LemmyKnowsBest@lemmy.world 10 points 9 months ago

I always assumed it was "joy" because games are fun, And it's a stick design for playing video games so Joy. Stick. Joystick. But I've apparently assumed wrongly.

[–] ClarkFlankblast@sh.itjust.works 8 points 9 months ago (1 children)

My uncle always calls my cousin "fuckstick". I wonder where it originated?

[–] HotDogFingies@kbin.social 6 points 9 months ago (1 children)

That's a good one. Ass clown is also good.

[–] SturgiesYrFase@lemmy.ml 2 points 9 months ago

I'm partial to douche-canoe

[–] ZephyrXero@lemmy.world 4 points 9 months ago

Wow, and the first electronic 2 axis stick, like we still use today was invented all the way back in 1926 🤯