Yall should remove some of these animal words and instead add different words for like the 5 different meanings of “spring”

  • fartsparkles@lemmy.world
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    18 days ago

    All tortoises are turtles (but not all turtles are tortoises) from a biology point of view. Tortoises specifically being exclusively land-based members of the turtle (Testudines) order. So there is a difference.

    And “spring” doesn’t really have different meanings - as per the root of the word, it always means some variant of “to burst forth”. There’s lots of different definitions for the word but they’re all rooted in the same place, from an etymology point of view.

    The season bursting forth from the winter darkness and cold, the metal coil as it bursts forth when released from compression, the source of water as it bursts forth from the ground, bursting forth someone out of jail, etc.

    Homographs are the real problem - when two different words, over time, become spelled the same.

    Sow, lead, close, bear. All have multiple etymologies where different words eventually became spelled the same. Those are the worst!

    English is a truly crazy mashup of Latin, Greek, French, German, Celtic, Norse and more.

    • Actionschnils@feddit.org
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      17 days ago

      As far as I know, they are totally diferent species, that coincidentally look alike. The European hares closest relative is the roe deer(?)

      But Im not a biologist. Probably someone with real knowledge can say something about it

  • regdog@lemmy.world
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    18 days ago

    If you don’t know the difference between turtle and tortoise then you are a monkey

    • qualia@lemmy.world
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      18 days ago

      Apes evolved from dry-nosed monkeys, so despite the popular wisdom, according to monophyly we are monkeys. Similarly humans are fish. The confusion arises because most people still group species by common characteristics (a grade) rather than common descent (a clade). Also known as Linnean vs phylogenetics.

    • Agent641@lemmy.world
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      18 days ago

      Terrapins move well on land and water, they have webbed clawed feets, mostly they live on fresh water.