Phenomenon is a great word. It means “Thingy” but when you don’t want to sound stupid
“Thingy (possibly happening?)” Vs. “Thingy (possibly dude?)”
Anomaly is another great one: “thingy (???)”
Actually, “phenomenon” comes from the Late Latin “phaenomenon” (“appearance”), from Ancient Greek “φαινόμενον” (phainómenon, “thing appearing to view”), neuter present middle participle of “φαίνω” (phaínō, “I show”).
“Phenomenon” means “hey, look at this thingy”.
And “anomaly” comes from Latin “anomalia”, from Ancient Greek “ἀνωμαλία” (anōmalía, “irregularity, anomaly”), from “ἀνώμαλος” (anṓmalos, “irregular, uneven”), negating the meaning of “ὁμαλός” (homalós, “even”), from “ὁμός” (homós, “same”).
“Anomaly” means “huh, that thingy is different”
But “entity” is a bit more boring, because it comes from the Medieval Latin “entitās”, from “ēns” (“being”), which is a slightly unusual declension of “sum” (“to be”). So it literally just means “a thing that is”, which is the closest I think to “thingy”.
But it does sound like “titty”!
Oooh! Nice. I was going through the notes looking for an analysis of the word “anomaly,” because I’d had some vague idea that it meant “phenomenon that hasn’t got a name yet” …but ok yeah it does make sense for the second part of it to be the word for “same,” instead of the word for “name.” Yay. Learned a new language thing.
