Talk:2960: Organ Meanings

how is thymus formed 172.70.85.102 07:00, 18 July 2024 (UTC)

It grows from seed.172.69.194.97 12:23, 18 July 2024 (UTC)

You think Randall might have made this one as a ploy to have explain xkcd educate him on the organs and metaphors mentioned? 162.158.146.33 07:59, 18 July 2024 (UTC)

Why is 'Liver' so high up on the metaphor scale? The only one I can think of is 'lily-livered', which doesn't appear to make much sense at all. On the other hand, I'd have 'Spleen' nearer the top, and 'Tongue' fairly high up as well. 172.70.162.185 08:06, 18 July 2024 (UTC)

Agreed; personally I’d have liver and tongue switch places, and I’d guess the one who added silver-tongued and biting one’s tongue would probably agree also. But that might be because I understand the biological function of a liver better than the average person does. 172.70.210.5 08:21, 18 July 2024 (UTC)

Are those really metaphors, though? 162.158.40.152 09:24, 18 July 2024 (UTC)

They aren't, or at least not metaphors to the tongue. Just done an edit, before having read this, to remove the visibility of "silver tongue" (a tongue that is metaphorically as silver... or maybe even quicksilver) and a "bitten tongue" (the tongue as if restrained by biting). Though there are other forms, the metaphor to biological function must be of the general "it is the tongue of the <something else>" type, maybe such as a tongue of lava or the tongue of an oil-can (one being an extending appendage, the other additionally being a contact depositor of liquid - though not always consistent in application).

Something can more easily be understood as the metaphorical heart/nerves/spine/etc of something, and we also have a good understanding of what the originals do. A sewage treatment plant can be considered the kidneys of a town (arguably more understood than a liver of one, for example, so I'd have personally switched the two), but it gets more complex with some of them. In the case of the appendix, we pretty much only know (in lay-use) that it's a spare fleshy bit that might or might not have any use, so the metaphorical 'equivalent biological function' of a "town's 'appendix'" is probably more understood than a body's actual appendix, for most people, the opposite of the situation with metaphorical/actual tongues. 172.70.91.64 10:06, 18 July 2024 (UTC)

Your understanding of metaphors is... unique. A "silver tongue" certainly is a tongue-based metaphor; we're referring to someone's manner of speech as their "tongue". -- Collapsinghrung (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

The one I think of is "What am I chopped Liver". Though according to google that is usually a Jewish metaphor (which I am) 162.158.158.103 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

I'm not convinced that 'Metaphor meaning' is going to work as a column in the table - several of these have multiple metaphors associated, often with varied and little-related meanings.172.70.160.249 12:20, 18 July 2024 (UTC)

I just added the line about anatomical metaphors varying from culture to culture. Would people like to include any examples of culturally variable metaphors? I think it was Jonathan Safran Foer's "Everything Is Illuminated" where an Eastern European character kept shouting out "spleen". 172.70.46.172 12:58, 18 July 2024 (UTC)

One example off the top of my head - and might need a proper reference to add - is the common use of Kidneys in metaphor. Afaik, the most common-slang in NA for that is "ow my kidneys" as in "I laughed so hard, my kidneys hurt now." Meanwhile, in Chinese (and some other East Asian) culture, 'kidneys' is most commonly used as a metaphor for sexual performance due to the connection to traditional medicine, where having sex is seen as 'exerting/damaging the kidneys.'172.69.214.38 14:05, 18 July 2024 (UTC)