Thanks to my friend Nancy Friedman for this link, will forward to my astrophysicist stepson, who has complained about this very thing. Like Sarah there, I chortled at Wheel Chock, and your weak-sighted fellow reminded me of the locals’ (Cape Cod chapter) name for a notorious peeping tom of yore: Windex. You’re welcome.
The fact that Andromeda is approaching at 110 km/s but might actually sidestep us is the ultimate cosmic near-miss. What I find fascinating is how portmanteau words like Milkomeda try to capture these massive cosmic events but end up sounding more like a breakfast cereal. The Sgr dSph nickname feels way more appropriate for astronomers dunno why they thought Milkomeda was gona work.
The portmanteau discussion here is brillant. Milkomeda fails exactly because it sounds like a dairy brand or some weird medication side effect, not a cosmic event. I remmeber hearing it for the first time and dunno whether to laugh or cringe. The comparison to nicknames is spot on too tho, both need that perfect balance between creativity and actual meaning to work.
+1 to Milkomeda: No. Or would that be -1 to it? Either way.
Another -nymish word is odonym (or hodonym), which is all about naming "travelways", such that an odomastician can probably explain the difference is between a street, road, avenue, boulevard, circle, court, way, lane, and the rest.
Thanks to my friend Nancy Friedman for this link, will forward to my astrophysicist stepson, who has complained about this very thing. Like Sarah there, I chortled at Wheel Chock, and your weak-sighted fellow reminded me of the locals’ (Cape Cod chapter) name for a notorious peeping tom of yore: Windex. You’re welcome.
The fact that Andromeda is approaching at 110 km/s but might actually sidestep us is the ultimate cosmic near-miss. What I find fascinating is how portmanteau words like Milkomeda try to capture these massive cosmic events but end up sounding more like a breakfast cereal. The Sgr dSph nickname feels way more appropriate for astronomers dunno why they thought Milkomeda was gona work.
Hard to be sure that anyone ever expected Milkomeda to be taken seriously. I hope not.
The portmanteau discussion here is brillant. Milkomeda fails exactly because it sounds like a dairy brand or some weird medication side effect, not a cosmic event. I remmeber hearing it for the first time and dunno whether to laugh or cringe. The comparison to nicknames is spot on too tho, both need that perfect balance between creativity and actual meaning to work.
+1 to Milkomeda: No. Or would that be -1 to it? Either way.
Another -nymish word is odonym (or hodonym), which is all about naming "travelways", such that an odomastician can probably explain the difference is between a street, road, avenue, boulevard, circle, court, way, lane, and the rest.
I’m a woman and chucked out loud when I read Wheel Chock 😂
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That's so lovely, Sarah. Thank you.