mole
In the latest edition of Pub Research we investigate the origin and meanings of the word mole.
A mole is a smallish squirrel-ferret with four legs and two eyes. Not many folk ever spot this canny little digger, but the sight of the countryside freckled with mole-hills is common enough. The mole itself wears acrylic nails from the $2 shop and choses not to shape them, as they help with all that digging. It is unclear what their exact purpose is, but their saliva is toxic to invertebrates so there is some kind of grand plan.
The word mole is also a unit of measurement used by chemistry geeks to denote the number 6.0225 × 10 (to the power of 23) which has something to do with carbon. It is also very possibly the root word for the word molecule.
Mole is derived from the latin meaning mass or massive structure. I think it's also a mexican sauce if you throw in another sylllable.
And yet a mole is also a sneak, an infiltrating operative with dark glasses and an odd old factory that somehow everybody fails to notice.
What's this got to do with Pub Research? Well I was really wondering why the word mole was used in Australia as an insult (as in "she's an fat ugly fucken mole") when moles are neither ugly nor fat, not deserving of wrath.
Or if you take their other meanings, why would our friend Fucken Mole bear comparison with a carbon logarithm or a spy?
Must be those dodgy fucken nails.
A mole is a smallish squirrel-ferret with four legs and two eyes. Not many folk ever spot this canny little digger, but the sight of the countryside freckled with mole-hills is common enough. The mole itself wears acrylic nails from the $2 shop and choses not to shape them, as they help with all that digging. It is unclear what their exact purpose is, but their saliva is toxic to invertebrates so there is some kind of grand plan.
The word mole is also a unit of measurement used by chemistry geeks to denote the number 6.0225 × 10 (to the power of 23) which has something to do with carbon. It is also very possibly the root word for the word molecule.
Mole is derived from the latin meaning mass or massive structure. I think it's also a mexican sauce if you throw in another sylllable.
And yet a mole is also a sneak, an infiltrating operative with dark glasses and an odd old factory that somehow everybody fails to notice.
What's this got to do with Pub Research? Well I was really wondering why the word mole was used in Australia as an insult (as in "she's an fat ugly fucken mole") when moles are neither ugly nor fat, not deserving of wrath.
Or if you take their other meanings, why would our friend Fucken Mole bear comparison with a carbon logarithm or a spy?
Must be those dodgy fucken nails.
Labels: words
posted by cardboardy @ 11:20 am
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