My kid asked me why we call it 'mud' when we're under the ocean

I was explaining a job to my seven year old and he stopped me to ask that, and now I can't stop thinking about how silly our slang must sound to outsiders (you know, like calling a whole harbor 'the mud').

2 comments

2 Comments

perez.mia7d ago

Oh man, that reminds me of my buddy trying to explain "the office" to his niece. She just could not get why a whole building full of desks got called "the office" like it was one single thing. He said her face was pure confusion, like we'd all agreed on the world's dumbest secret code. Kids really point out how weird our shortcuts are.

barbaramorgan6d ago

Remember trying to explain to my nephew why we "roll up" a car window. He kept looking for the actual rolling part. @perez.mia is right, kids show us how much language is just agreed upon nonsense. We say we "hang up" a phone, but nothing gets hung. We "dial" a number on a flat screen. It's all leftover words from old things we don't even use anymore, and we just expect everyone to get it.