• missfrizzle@discuss.tchncs.de
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    4
    ·
    edit-2
    4 hours ago

    icons are basically ideograms. floppy disks might be the etymology of the save icon, but kids will learn it means “save” the same way Chinese kids learn that 人 means “person” (a simplified rendering of the original Bone Oracle glyph, which depicted a person from the side)

    as another example, you used the word “inundated” which comes from the Latin unda meaning “wave,” as in waves overcoming a building. but you learned to use that word without needing the history lesson behind it.

      • potpotato@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        4
        ·
        3 hours ago

        How do play, pause, or stop icons mean anything? They were around for decades before me and I just learned that was how those actions were communicated.

        • Jerkface@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          2 hours ago

          Likely in the way that the previous commenter described. They’re not wrong, it just wasn’t a question of how. It was more that sometimes the transmission of information fails.