Which things were you surprised to learn are metaphors?
post by Gordon Seidoh Worley (gworley) · 2024-11-22T03:46:02.845Z · LW · GW · 3 commentsThis is a question post.
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Answers 18 Said Achmiz None 3 comments
I love this question [LW · GW], but I've enjoyed noticing answers to its opposite more. What are some things you thought weren't metaphors but were surprised to learn actually are metaphors.
A classic example is that, at least in English, time is often described using distance metaphors. For example, we talk about things taking a "long" or a "short" amount of time, about events that happened in the "distant past" or will happen in the "near future", and how two events can be said to happen "close" or "far apart" from one another in time.
Answers
Tablespoons of butter.
A tablespoon is a unit of volume. Namely, it is one-sixteenth of a cup.
Now, there are two distinct units called “ounces” that are commonly used in the United States. One is the avoirdupois ounce, also know as the United States customary ounce, which is a unit of weight; it is one-sixteenth of a pound. The other is the U.S. customary fluid ounce, which is a unit of volume; it is one-eighth of a cup.
One-sixteenth of a cup is a tablespoon. One-eighth of a cup is an ounce (fluid). One-eighth of one-half of a cup is a tablespoon. These are all measures of volume.
Butter, however, is sold by weight:
The 16-oz. package of butter in the photo above says that it contains four sticks. This is one stick:
The stick is divided into eight “tablespoons”.
But the “tablespoons” of butter depicted above are not one tablespoon each in volume. And there is no such thing as a unit of weight called the “tablespoon”.
So what is this? Well, one stick of butter is 4 ounces in weight. 8 ounces in volume is one cup. By analogy, if we think of 8 ounces in weight as a “cup” in weight (which is not actually a real weight unit!), then one-sixteenth of that weight is a “tablespoon” in weight (by analogy with one-sixteenth of a cup in volume being a tablespoon in volume). Neither cups nor tablespoons are real weight units! But if we call an 8-oz. weight a “cup”, then we can call a 1/2 oz. weight a “tablespoon”.
Sticks of butter are divided into metaphorical tablespoons of butter.
↑ comment by Brendan Long (korin43) · 2024-11-22T06:14:00.127Z · LW(p) · GW(p)
It sounds like 1/2 cup of butter (8 tbps) weighs 4 oz, so shouldn't this actually work out so each of those sections actually is 1 tbsp in volume, and it's just a coincidence (or not) that 2 fl oz of butter weighs 1 oz?
Replies from: AnthonyC, SaidAchmiz↑ comment by AnthonyC · 2024-11-22T10:56:21.813Z · LW(p) · GW(p)
This is almost true. Fat is less dense than water, so a tablespoon of butter weighs something like 10% less than a half ounce. Not enough to matter in practice for most cooking. Your toast and your average chocolate chip cookie don't care. But, many approximations like this exist, and are collectively important enough that professionals use weight not volume in most recipes. And enough that the difference in fat content between butters (as low as 80% in the US but more often 85+% in European or otherwise "premium" butters) can matter in more sensitive recipes, like pie crust and drop biscuits. I used to add 1-2 Tbsp of shortening to my pie crust. I stopped when I switched to Kerrygold butter - no longer needed.
Replies from: AnthonyC↑ comment by AnthonyC · 2024-11-22T11:05:21.226Z · LW(p) · GW(p)
Edit to add: I think almost every concept we use in life is part metaphor, part not, and the difference is one of degree and not kind. I was definitely surprised to learn this, or at least to learn how deep the rabbit hole goes.
Almost all human thinking is part metaphor. [LW · GW]
Words have uses not meanings. Definitions are abstractions [? · GW].
In otherwise, everything is (in part) a metaphor.
↑ comment by Said Achmiz (SaidAchmiz) · 2024-11-22T14:40:34.219Z · LW(p) · GW(p)
No, you’re misunderstanding. There is no 1/2 cup of butter anywhere in the above scenario. One stick of butter is 4 oz. of butter (weight), but not 1/2 cup of butter (volume).
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comment by AnthonyC · 2024-11-22T10:47:31.800Z · LW(p) · GW(p)
A classic example is that, at least in English, time is often described using distance metaphors
For me, I knew this was a metaphor, but until I took Mandarin in college I never realized that other languages/cultures/people used different spatial metaphors for time. Is the future in front of you, or behind? Are you moving towards it, or it towards you? This has some practical applications, since apparently even in English people have different intuitions about what it means to push a meeting or event up/out/back/ahead.
Replies from: mr-hire↑ comment by Matt Goldenberg (mr-hire) · 2024-11-22T17:33:26.408Z · LW(p) · GW(p)
Tad James has a fascinating theory called timeline therapy. In it, he explores how different people represent their timelines and his theory about how shifting those representations will change fundamental ways you relate to the world.
comment by JBlack · 2024-11-23T03:01:08.338Z · LW(p) · GW(p)
In relativity, space and time are just different directions in spacetime with a single pseudometric determining separation between events. With this understanding, the time/space distance metaphor is more literal than most people think.
The correspondence isn't exact since it's a pseudometric and not a standard metric, and everyday units of time correspond to much greater than everyday units of distance, but it's still more than just a metaphor.