So it turns out that the word "stereotype" originally refered to a method of printing with a plate. It comes from a French word meaning "printing by means of a solid plate of type", from the Greek stereos ("solid") and the French type ("type"). It's fairly clear how the modern-day usage derived from this.

Stereophonic -- "solid sound" -- was apparently coined to describe the effect of two-channel sound transmission to reproduce the sound separation of live hearing. Likewise, when we refer to a "stereoscopic" image, we mean that we're producing the illusion of a "solid" image; the technique happens to utilize two images.

So there's a broad assumption that "stereo" has something to do with "two": two sound sources, two images, etc. But really, the word root has nothing to do with "two" at all.

well, that was interesting.

I looked it up before I wrote the strip, of course, but it didn't stop me from using the dialogue. Nothing can stop me!

I think this is a good example of the fluidity of language. We like to think of language as static, but most words are derived from other words that mean entirely different things. Meaning is derived from usage, instead of the reverse. "Cool" certainly didn't mean "popular" or "impressive jowls" until the last few decades, for example.

I'd posit that Stereo does, in fact, mean "two" now, regardless of what the dictionary says, simply because most people think that's what it means. Tyranny of the majority, and all that.

In Response to Josie37 (#1714):

We aim to please.

In Response to jon (#1720):

That's a good point. I think about it from time to time, but usually I don't get very far with the thought. There's a collection of related ideas I was thinking about recently.

So meaning comes from usage, as you say, and I've gotten in the habit of answering "Is that a word?" with "Do you understand what it means?" So with that in mind, I tend to wonder why some people get so uptight about profanity. I mean, it's one thing to see it as rude, but some people carry on to the point where you'd think there was some universal significance to the word. South Park did an episode along those lines, with the Knights of Standards and Practices... This also ties in to a lengthy rant I have about people's obsession with symbols, but I digress...

So I was thinking about "offensive" language outside the context of human speech, and I thought, there are a lot of "things" in the universe: asteroids, planets, comets. A lot of those things have rock formations. Lots of rock formations per object. There are a whole lot of rock formations in the universe, most of them formed randomly.

So if you take a foul word of your choosing, it's a fair bet that somewhere, on some cold rock floating in space, is a rock formation that clearly spells out that word. I've found this to be a very calming thought.

In Response to mea37 (#1722):

"So if you take a foul word of your choosing, it's a fair bet that somewhere, on some cold rock floating in space, is a rock formation that clearly spells out that word."

Yes, and watch what cult springs up when that is discovered....

Am I the only one who clicked on this thread, saw my browser trying to retrieve "http://www.goats.com/forums/pub/404.html," and expected it to return "File Not Found"?

I'm guessing probably, yeah.

Beeeej