Why 'seasoning' means so many different things

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[@joshswainwright]

I love how this is almost as much an anthropology channel as it is a cooking one, such an interesting combination.

[@thirstfast1025]

I was thinking the same thing

[@Thuazabi]

Yeah. I came for the recipes but stayed for the anthropology/science. It's more interesting tbh.

[@Guardian_Arias]

Can't have cooking without anthropology, and i've had a thought experiment of how the first human first discovered salt. my thought is that a toddler decided to just lick every thing as toddlers do and then accidentally came across a delicious rock. In which case the community all tried tasting the rock also and eventually tried eating the rocks with food.

[@WanderTheNomad]

@@Guardian_Arias what i've heard people say is that people probably saw animals licking a rock and thought "if it's good for them, then it's good for me, probably"

[@hcs8789]

Totally agree

[@TheMarshmellowLife]

The self awareness of throwing salt on the cast iron being something Adam would do was gold

[@wubzt3r]

"Why I season my skillet and not my steak"

[@doctaflo]

it’s also part of a legit method for cleaning cast iron after use.

[@mummer7337]

Ragussy knows whats up

[@YodasPapa]

I literally seasoned my plate yesterday. I'm on a whole 'nother level.

[@BigSnipp]

We did this at Wendy's lol

[@Zaiyetz]

Why I season my seasoning instead of my seasoning

[@shootymcshootfacekoff7972]

Why I season my seasons instead of my seasoning

[@paroxymal7688]

Ahhhh you beat me to it

[@Annon201]

With 20 eggs (Yes, 20)?

[@bensoncheung2801]

222 👍 4th 💬

[@wtfpwnz0red]

i like a cutting board aged steak

[@cebo494]

To add to your final hypothesis that sprinkling flavor imparting ingredients over food might've reminded people of sewing seeds: a lot of common seasonings ARE seeds. You are sometimes quite literally sewing your dish with seeds.

[@SlavicCelery]

I think the fact he showed himself planting fennel hinted at that thought. But, I might be overthinking it.

[@ChrisKChandler]

🤯

[@WanderTheNomad]

sowing

[@Nikki0417]

Was about to say this.

[@jinxed7915]

Sowing* Also, sowing means to plant seeds, so unless your meal is a bunch of dirt, you aren't literally sowing either

[@felipecrespo6197]

The best part of learning a new language is to learn something new about your own language. My native is Spanish, and the term for 'seasoning' is 'sazonar', which sounds quite similar. So after watching this video I felt the urge to look for the root of 'sazonar' and is the same: lat 'satio' , spa 'acción de sembrar', eng 'to plow'

[@lucasbittencourtnogueira5858]

so thats where the name of the packet spice Sazón came from, lol. In portuguese we call "tempeirar", to add "tempeiros", spices.

[@pwsiegel]

In my head canon, the use of "seasoning" to mean "salting your food" came from the days when people would salt meat in order to preserve it - so "well seasoned" meat really meant "well aged", but people came to associate that with "well salted" since salt was the preservative. I have absolutely no evidence for this narrative, and I'm only just now realizing that I probably made it up without realizing it.

[@SpartaSpartan117]

You know this was also kind of my headcanon, and I also can't remember how it came into being?

[@JonathanKayne]

On a somewhat unrelated note, that is where the kosher part of kosher salt comes from. It was traditionally used in kosher meat preservation (koshering if you will) and thus the name for sea salt of a specific grain size got the name "kosher salt"

[@eggrollorsoup6052]

@@JonathanKayne Ooh ooh ooh, I knew that one! (Only because Adam had a video on salt a year or two ago) I'm starting to wonder if there's anything I know that was independently acquired and not from one of his vídeos. Hmmm. I'm starting to think that all of this knowledge I'm acquiring from these vids are pushing out other stuff I used to know. Oh no! I don't think my brain is big enough to handle the complete catalog of Adam Ragusea/KZbin.

[@alfaomega129]

In my language "chicken stock" - rosół - literally got his name from "rozsól" - get rid of the salt.

[@azael1474]

Agreed, the concepts of "season" and "curing" overlap a lot in latin languages, because of the use of salt (or other additives) for keeping meat, cheese, fish etc.

[@sgz8262]

had a conversation with my grandma some time ago where she mentioned that when she was a kid, when they talked about "seasoning" food, they were referring to adding fat to it- butter or margarine or fat from whatever meat had been cooked. they pretty much never meant adding herbs or spices, because they usually didn't have any.

[@seronymus]

What's her dialect, where is she from?

[@alexricky87]

Did your grandma grow up during the Depression?

[@jakobeles]

In German we distinguish between seasoning food and seasoning pan. Seasoning food means „würzen“ wich directly translated to „spicing“ regardless of wether you use actual spices or just salt. Seasoning a pan on the other hand is „einbrennen“ in German. This literally translates to „burning in“ wich I suppose you do to the pan with the oil.

[@philurbaniak1811]

Very cool 👍👍

[@tameshrew469]

German is a much more logical language

[@AvB.83]

And the word for spice is itself derived from the word for "root". As for the "seasoned wood", it would probably "abgelagertes Holz", which roughly translates to "wood that has been stored for a reasonable amount of time". On a very nerdy level, I find it interesting that none of those terms has anything to do with the seasons.

[@dreamingacacia]

quite similar to Thai.

[@Svafne]

It's the same in swedish as german

[@thenoobsays]

I for one appreciate the "root cause" line while holding a carrot

[@ianbastiaans2128]

Funny thing in relation to the seasons: in Dutch, a person who is 'doorgewinterd' usually means they are well-experienced, relating to any topic. It comes from Old Dutch, literally meaning they went 'through the winter' (which was not an easy feat in those times) and meant they had proven to be able to take care of themselves in harsh situations.

[@BigSnipp]

I looked it up and Dutch temperatures are fairly mild during the winter.

[@MrGksarathy]

@@BigSnipp Climate hasn't been static over the past 2000 odd years.

[@BigSnipp]

@@MrGksarathy Is this like a 5th grade science class flex? lol

[@cemreomerayna463]

Hey! An amateur linguist here. I really like watching your content in general, but in this video, I am absolutely amazed at your thorough research on a topic you are unfamiliar with and your admission in times when you describe your speculations rather than an actual finding or even a consensus among the experts.

[@JjrShabadoo]

A well-reasoned video from our favorite well-seasoned KZbinr.

[@Florkl]

I love etymological deep dives! Thanks so much!

[@YodasPapa]

You should check out Simon Roper's channel if you haven't yet. It's like 80% etymological deep dives.

[@lucabielski2909]

it’s the same with the word “culture”! it comes from the culturing of crops, and now it can refer to the culturing of people

[@Flex_Nutts]

I learn so much from your videos .. not about food, but about other things as well. Thanks so much for all of your hard work! You are making a difference.

[@eggrollorsoup6052]

I know what you mean. I originally came to this channel to learn how to cook a pork chop (with pan sauce no less) and a bunch of other dishes. This channel gave me the confidence to try a lot of stuff. Before the Covid vaccinations came out (most of 2020 until about March 2021..?) everything I ate came from my kitchen (except a few packaged snacks). Because of him I can totally rock and roll a pork chops! But, now I just keep learning....shtufff. And I'm twenty years older than him. It's a little intimidating. I just wish he would stop referencing himself as an old man, so much. It makes me feel so... ancient. 😟....🥸

[@angrypotato_fz]

It was interesting and surprising for me to observe that such different actions as wood storage, pan conservation and adding spices or salt to a dish have the same name in English, that's confusing! In Poland we use a similar word, "sezonowanie" for storing something for a long time (for example wood), it can be also used for oiling the pans (although some other words might be preferred), but fortunately we have completely different word for adjusting the taste of food :)

[@heathhall3662]

Why does The Polish language use several common food spices (pepper and horseradish) as curse words?

[@AnnaEmilka]

@@heathhall3662 good question, never thought of that. Maybe because they are spicy words 🤣 Also, at least in my opinion, "pieprzyć", "chrzanić" are on the milder end of the swearing spectrum if you will

[@darcieclements4880]

@@AnnaEmilka I did not know this was a thing, but I am totally using it in english now next time I need to pseudo-swear.

[@erzsebetkovacs2527]

Isn't this a French influence, though?

[@sephirothjc]

In Spanish, the words 'sazón' and 'sazonar' have become more exclusive to flavor. Sazón is usually used to refer to a person's or a culture's particular way of seasoning food. But sazonar can also be used more generally to refer to getting something ready for use.

[@CamCamCamCamCamCamCamCamCammmm]

Let me present another theory: Spices, particularly salt, were traditionally used to make things last longer, so some salted meats may have been well seasoned, both in terms of time and flavour.

[@martinbogadomartinesi5135]

i recommend you listen to adam's podcast on this subject, he talks about indian/east asian cuisine and how their food seasoning is related to food preservation.

[@CamCamCamCamCamCamCamCamCammmm]

@@martinbogadomartinesi5135 I already have.

[@SuperMustache555]

I love when Adam makes videos about etymology, it's super interesting!

[@SupahGeck]

I think the connecting between the act of seasoning food being similar to planting seeds is spot on, especially if you consider that many seasoning spices are often the literal seeds of the plant.

[@BakersTuts]

Did you hear about the soldier that survived mustard gas and pepper spray? Now he's classified as a seasoned veteran!

[@boldizsarballay7715]

Subscribed for the cooking videos, but now this type of content and the pod is my favourite. Keep em coming Adam

[@Thuazabi]

Same

[@krankarvolund7771]

"assaisonner" means pretty much the same thing as "seasoning" except for one thing: seasoning a pan. In french we "traitent" our pans, which would be translated as treating, like you use a treatment against rust ^^ Oh and firewood also, we don't season our firewood, we dry it as simple as that XD

[@SlavicCelery]

If I had to pick which language, between English and French, would more colorfully describe preparing wood for use as fuel. I would have not picked English initially.

[@gautierchauvot3094]

In french, we say "culotter", not traité. It means to put a culotte, something on the butt.

[@krankarvolund7771]

@@gautierchauvot3094 Ah peut-être, j'ai jamais eu de poêle comme ça, donc j'ai regardé dans un dictionnaire ^^

[@JonyALB]

In regards to your point about the historically agricultural division of the year, I wanted to mention that the Swedish word for autumn is "höst", which directly translates to "harvest". Your more anthropologic videos are every bit as interesting as your cooking ones, in part due to people in the comments sharing even more information about their own food history and language.

[@shannondore]

I avoided cast iron for the longest time because I thought it would be a pain to clean and season but got one many years ago and it's my favorite pan to use. Steaks cooked to perfection as do eggs. I love my cast iron pan.

[@whiderboss]

I've never used anything but a cast iron

[@shannondore]

@Crimson Outdoors Co. Lol! I know that now... I sometimes use kosher salt as my scrub.

[@paige1816]

You gotta scrub it with soap and cold water. It's the best way.

[@leetri]

In Swedish, we have different words for all of these concepts. Season as in time (and TV) is "säsong", which has the same roots as in English. Season as in adding spice is "krydda", which means "to spice". Season as in seasoning a pan is "bränna in", literally "burn in". Seasoned as in veterancy is "garvad", which means "tanned" as in tanned leather.

[@DrummerDaddio]

Also, like, many seasonings come from harvested plants. The spice you're putting on your food came from the season's harvest of that plant. So you're transferring the season's yield to your food, thus seasoning.

[@AlexTenThousand]

A false friend that I ran into during the process of learning English was that, in Italian, "stagionare" means to let something like cheese or cured ham age in a controller manner, once again going back to the root of letting time pass.

[@movieblocks9164]

Adam’s like the Vsauce of food.

[@man4437]

Without farming, I wouldn't have a hairy man from across the world overexplain etymologies to me. Truly, a marvel

[@nyella]

As a speaker of English as a foreign language, this was for me as much a language lesson as it was a history and linguistics and anthropology AND cooking lesson :D

[@m4nman]

As soon as the video started my mom erupted in laughter. just the stern and informative tone of " *THIS IS SEASONING* "

[@boyhenry1]

Just another guy on the internet here, but I feel like the act of preserving food using salt also matches the old definition of seasoning since the food needs to last through the seasons. And so adding flavors like salt and spice could have been called seasoning because of that.

[@misterkevinoh]

That's a wild connection between the movement of your hands when planting seeds and seasoning food!

[@tessieract]

Adam explaining the etymology of "season" being related to words having to do with sowing seeds in the ground, and then cutting to him sprinkling seeds in the ground in the same manner he'd pinch salt into his food fucking blew my mind

[@Lxtus_]

As a student of English at Leiden University, seeing a video from a cooking KZbinr talking about linguistic phenomena definitely makes me happy (and helps me understand my philology course just a tad bit more)

[@beniaminorocchi]

Fun Italian etymology fact: season in Italian is "stagione" from the Latin statio-onis (literally stop or wait). The verb that comes from it (stagionare) would be translated to aging in English (like in hams or cheese). The act of seasoning food would be "condire" (straight from Latin, no certain etymology) or "insaporire" (literally "to give flavour"). "Sow" translates to "seminare" (were "seme" means "seed").

[@Marco_Onyxheart]

The Dutch word for time is tijd, pronounced the same as tide. I've never made that connection before.

[@SlavicCelery]

It's fun to see the old human influence on language carrying on to today.

[@firenter]

In Dutch when we season a dish we call it "herbing" or "spicing" depending on which meaning of the root word you take but both should make sense since a lot of European seasonings were often the leaves, roots or seeds of herbs and since many of the far flung spices that came our way are used similarly. A peasant might "herb" his porridge with parsley while a nobleman might "spice" that same porridge with nutmeg, but they're essentially doing the same thing which is adding flavour to a dish with a strongly flavoured ingredient.

[@erzsebetkovacs2527]

Oooh, that's interesting! What are those two verbs?

[@firenter]

@@erzsebetkovacs2527 it is one and the same "kruiden"

[@GoyoTheKid12]

Love the etymological detective work :) "Why seasons season our seasonings, NOT our seasons."

[@BioYuGi]

It definitely feels like there's a large faction of people who have this very weird concept of seasoning. I have seen videos of people cooking meat that has been marinated, aka, left in a bag with sauce and spices for a while, before being grilled. They somehow say it's not seasoned. I've seen people make their own 'seasoning blends' with 12 different spices including spices that already include other ingredients. It makes no sense.

[@shiryu22]

i love these types of videos because it shows knowledge is contextual and that knowledge is narrowing down from all the ways we can observe which specific information is relevant to a particular topic

[@dreamcaught3876]

seasoning coming from the sprinkling action popped immediately into my mind the second i saw that clip of you sprinkling seeds initially come up. it makes sense that sprinkling cumin seeds into food or the earth would get the same words attached

[@AdvancePlays]

Was hoping you'd bring up the physical resemblance between seasoning and scattering seeds - these kinds of analogical extensions pop up everywhere in language so I'd bet it is a factor. Here's the thing with linguistic innovation, even at conception nobody can guarantee they know its internal logic. Say some guy started saying "I'm seasoning my dinner", one person next to him might think "Ah I know what you mean, you're likening the physical acts of scattering small particles to each other", and another might think "I know what you mean, you're likening the acts of performing a preparatory step to get some beneficial result". Both will outwardly say "oh that's a good turn of phrase here, I'll start using it too"

[@WanderTheNomad]

It's like a gene that provides multiple benefits, thus increasing the chances of it being spread.

[@Maduc]

Adam is very proud of his fitness journey, and we know this because of the shorts he is not only wearing but also framing dead center in a few shots.

[@miloslavyavashev1034]

I love your videos man. From the simple recipies (you being, by far, the channel I've cooked most recipies from) to the interesting and educational videos and my personal favourite. The ending sentence. It's so calming and always such a nice finish to everything said in the video. Most times poetic as well. Makes me feel calm and at ease. Thank you, Adam.

[@teetbeezoon]

French Canadian here and I can confirm that your pronunciation is spot on! Just as good if not better than most French Canadians! 😅

[@YodasPapa]

They're old french words though so their pronunciation has likely changed. You might be surprised by how much vowel sounds can shift in a few centuries. At least they did to a remarkable degree in English.

[@cgourin]

You nailed the french pronunciation, well done. Now why in English a "casserole" is a flat square dish when in French it means a pot, a pot being in French a jar?

[@patricklippert8345]

With the French root you also get saison, the French-style ale that farmers would brew with their leftover grain in the winter.

[@OrigamiMarie]

Whatever doesn't kill you, goes away, evolves, and comes back for another swing.

[@timothystevens4657]

We use the term in prospecting. A seasoned gold pan is a pan with scratches all across the surface, perfect for creating friction and slowing gold movement.

[@1970barzo]

hi adam. we use same word for adding salt to food "sprinkle" and sowing, planting something to ground in turkish, which is "ek-mek"

[@philurbaniak1811]

Square meals, square deals, salt and pepper in your hair and casting seeds into a pan; the interconnectedness here is so pleasing 😊👌

[@Bawbalicious]

I love the heavy foreshadowing of the final hypothesis throughout the video. I literally pointed and said "there it is!"

[@danr9183]

I really love how Adam’s videos are so much more than cooking. The context around the particular dish or topic are what make it all so interesting and entertaining.

[@CastleofFiemme]

That's interesting! In Italy we use to season (literally stagionare) to say aged, just as when you say seasoned person, but we use it to talk about food. And to say to season we use "condire", which means to put inside (from latin condere)

[@artinhertz5143]

Yes was just about to comment this actually! 'stagionare' is to age something like a prosciutto or other cured meats

[@AnnaEmilka]

That makes me think whether the english word condiment also comes from latin condere 🤔

[@erzsebetkovacs2527]

@@AnnaEmilka It does.

[@aloneliraz]

Adam I really love the shorts

[@anthonyguerreiro5068]

Those 2 second shots of Adam in his short shorts get me out of bed in the morning

[@SleepyJeeves]

French born here. Being that in french 'to season food' is "assaisonner", which translate in meaning more or less to "put in season", I believe it stemmed from the use of specific herbs and spices available at points in the year that were not necessarily available throughout. So when it was time to harvest fine herbs, seasoning would have been those herbs, when spices shipment came through (remember that spices were a rare thing for a long time in Europe and the Americas), seasoning was to put those rare spices to work. So seasoning food surely had a root in what was available in the current "season" to improve the flavour of food. This is still true today. Pumpkin spice latte anyone? "Seasoned" with "Autumn" spices?

[@SDOtunes]

Adam, here's a book recommendation for your language nerd side, available as an audiobook: "The Horse, the Wheel, and Language" by David W. Anthony. Gtreat read on the archeology of language and Proto Indo Europeans in general!

[@derAtze]

A bit lengthy, but "a short history of everything" by bill bryson is similar, you might like it :)

[@darcieclements4880]

Adam: I have to go in detail here because people get pedantic if I don't. Also Adam: Let me explain all uses of a word and its history for funsies. But seriously, I for one really appreciate the care and time given to explaining etymology on this channel, so many misconceptions originate when the speaker and listener are on different pages on what a word means and that happens so often and magnifies so rapidly on the internet now, we really do need this level of care to avoid misinformation. I wish more youtubers put in the effort that Adam does.

The instant the word "tide" went up on screen, it clicked for me. I grew up speaking a language whose word for "time" is literally "tyd", but I never made the connection before now.

[@phelanii4444]

The thing with time being measured through agricultural processes is something that has been very much alive in my home country of Bosnia until pretty recently, especially in more rural places, where agriculture still was the main thing in life. My gran was born as the first of many children to my grandpa and his then first wife (great-gran died in WWII), during the chaotic times between world wars in the then Kingdom of Yugoslavia. The only date they could give for her birth was "when the hay was gathered", so whoever did the books on her birth certificate put it down as August 2nd. We don't know if that's really her birthday, but it's as close as we'll get, since great-grandpa died in 1993, and I doubt he'd remember anything more precise.

[@joshvanderveen5545]

God adam, always answering questions I forgot I had. Your videos take me back to my first days in the kitchen and fill me with a sense of completion that only a good meal can accomplish. Well done as always.

[@SimonLevermann]

In Low German, which is still spoken by a few older people in germany's northern parts, "time" (german "Zeit") is actually still "Tied"

[@khug]

Maybe "seasoning" your food is more about making up for a lack of "natural seasoning" (aka ripeness) by adding flavour / salt to compensate. Similar to the way that "seasoning a pan" mimics natural usage. Since you only harvest a few times a year, most of the time your ingredients would be a little off their prime.

[@greyline23]

Dang, those are some short shorts you got there Adam!

[@sarelloo]

Short short thirst trap

[@evelynbaron66]

I love this channel and related podcast. ANYTHING can come up. I used to teach linguistics at a University level btw and one student reviewer commented that I was good at entomology ... recommend Anguished English by Richard Lederer for anyone who needs a good cathartic laugh as in the history of the world according to student blooper chapter ? "The ancient Egyptians wrote in hydraulics and built huge triangular cubes" and later on "Abraham Lincoln was born in a log cabin which he built with his own hands and wrote the Gettysburg Address while travelling there on the back of an envelope" (which is a zeugma to be continued...) Adam, you make the world a better place!

[@cindroman]

Adam, your notion on seasoning food with salt and seasoning the soil with seeds is really reminiscent to me of one situation within the nerdfighter culture. When Hank Green of The Vlogbrothers sent a video response to his brother John and elaborated of how they both have the same name. This and that notion made me feel nostalgic and happy, so thank you for that 🙂 . Also, not only for the notion, but this whole video is grest and informative ☺️. Keep it up👍🏿

[@SlavicCelery]

Let's not forget the origins of the word salary, with the payment of salt. Salt would most commonly be a portion of a soldiers wages. So, a long term soldier who has been paid for a long time, has received more seasoning, figuratively and literally, than a green recruit. I'd personally like to think humor plays a role in the many meanings of seasoning.

[@jackg9581]

Thank you for the seasoning knowlege! No matter what you're wearing, you always deliver the good vid!!!

[@thomascantwakeup]

Loving the film quality!! Truly constantly improving

[@rubidot]

This video had everything I wanted in it. Explanations of the various meanings of seasoning including a mention of seasoning firewood, and a mention of where the information came from. 💯

[@seanfitzgerald341]

Gotta give you this-this was a very poetic video.

[@warmfeetwinner760]

I like when Adam's audio setup makes him sound like Hank Green.

[@LunarRocketeer]

Randomly had the thought in my head, "Hmm, I bet Adam has an interesting video about seasoning, maybe even why it's called that." Found this and it did not disappoint.

[@thunder_2124]

The memes continues. First he season his cutting board, then the butter, now the pan.

[@BarbarianGod]

a fun linguistic note, weather and time share the same root and are sometimes the same word in slavic languages, as well as moon and month

[@KaitouKaiju]

The word month comes from moon Because a month was originally defined by the lunar phases

[@deadman0013]

You may be right about how seeds where sprinkled across the ground. I can totally scenario in which the act of laying seeds in that fashion could come to be known as seasoning and how a certain people may look at the act of the sprinkling and use the same verb to describe it

[@andersvj]

2:35 "Tid" in means time in Danish, Swedish and Norwegian. In Danish we even call the tide, "tidevand" - timed water I guess you could losely translate it as.

[@johannesisaksson7842]

Ye :p Tiden av dagen is the time of the day

[@mikkojensen]

this was one of the most smooth segues into a sponsor segment I've seen from you so far- anyways great video as always!

[@BrooklyKnight]

I love all the vids you do that are related to etymology lol - etymology is literally one of the 3 main reasons I pursued linguistics in uni so it always makes me excited when someone brings it up.

[@Marco_Onyxheart]

Yeah. I've never thought about the word tide like this. Even though it's pronounced the same as tijd, the Dutch word for time. Never noticed the coincidence.

[@AnnaEmilka]

@@Marco_Onyxheart isn't it also from the same root as 'tidning' in Swedish?

[@tetsuei5928]

I kept expecting the ad segue to be for Indeed when you were talking about the fact that someone who's done work for a while is seasoned.

[@gFrass]

Minor point but in relation to the tide/time discussion, people wish each other good tidings, usually especially around Christmas time. I don't know if Christmas has anything to do with it though.

[@Marco_Onyxheart]

The Dutch word for time is tijd. Pronounced the same as tide. I've never noticed that before.

[@funatish]

In portuguese, to season is "temperar", which is closely related to the portuguese for time, which is "tempo". It makes so much sense given your explanation and actually makes clearer the relationship between "seasoning" and the passing of time. I never made the connection between these two words until now, so thank you for that Adam. I feel slightly less stupid...

[@dtpugliese318]

Brilliant video. This thought popped into my head a few weeks ago as to why the word season has so many uses. It makes sense that a seasoned pan or seasoned veteran meant something that has seen a few seasons pass by and therefore has gained experience, but I couldn’t figure out the seasoning the sprinkling salt and spices on food connection.

[@wincentpukar2726]

It's a shame that people who refer to "what doesn't kill you makes you stronger" often don't know the origin of it. It's from Nietzche and it's as metaphysical as it gets, so it's difficult to even say if it's true or false, or even if it can have a truth value.

[@willek1335]

Hmm. What do you mean by it being metaphysical? "Out of life's school of war, what doesn't kill me, makes me stronger." comes from Twilight of the Idols. It's not that every blow that the average joe survive automatically makes those normal people better, that's not how it works for a lot of people who survive serious illness'. In Ecce Homo he talks about how remarkable people are able to turn injuries or accidents into advantages. An affirmation of resilience seen by extraordinary people. I have a northern cabin that's located on the edge of a steep mountain. On that edge, there are trees that grow out of a soil thinner than most people's belly fat. These are chunky trees you can't wrap your hands around, jet through wind, snow and hardship, they persist. They're strong, and the environment makes them resilient. That's what I think about when I read the quote.

[@wincentpukar2726]

@@willek1335 So I say it's metaphysical for two reasons mostly. First is the historical reason, and unfortunately I don't have a good secondary source to back this claim but I think that Nietzche took a lot from Spinoza which can be mostly seen when compering later chapters of the Ethics where Spinoza talked about how emotions correspond to increase and decrease of metaphysical power. Here metaphysical means that it is the fundamental concepts which constitute our world and I think that for Nietzche it works similarly except he tried to naturalise the whole perspective. Second reason is about language. Often I think that his claim is in fact a redefinition of what does it mean to be strong / what is power. Nietzche has a lot of points about how our interpretations are intertwined with reality, which combined with overall mission of fighting nihilism / affirming life is a reason to take this quote as an argument that we don't understand what power is. For example, Nietzche is controversial for claiming that he wants to see more suffering in the world. This sounds very stupid untill you take it into context, his teacher was Schopenhauer who argued that life is full of suffering and therefore life is meaningless. Nietzche took it and twisted the argument around by saying if life is full of suffering then maybe suffering is good since we can't just agree to the conclusion that life is meaningless. This brings me to the second linguistic point - I don't think this quote is descriptive, I think it is prescriptive. As a descriptive sentence it is obviously false but Nietzche is not a stupid person (and not illogical as his personal notes show) so I think this should be read as "whatever doesn't kill me should make me stronger and it's up to me to find this power". Now, this makes it harder to falsify since it's unclear if normative sentences are capable of being true/false, this is what the field of meta-ethics discuss and I think that they can be true and the proposition that this expresses is one of the true propositions about ethics but it's very difficult to make it clear and formal what does the proposition exactly argues for so Nietzche just went with his style and trolled people. Since really, Nietzche was a troll and this whole argument for and against this sentence is a result of his trolling since both sides are incorrect about what is the meaning of it. Other less trollish formulations of it can be put like "pessimism is irrational" or "as long as you are alive you always have a reason to put effort in your life" but the literature on it is vast. Keyword being internal/external reasons. But okay, I hope that's sufficient answer.

[@LiamPorterFilms]

As an (amateur) linguist, I simply love this video, and I learned loads for the first time, such as the relationship between “tide” and “time”. It also made me think about how all linguistic concepts really do go back to farming!

[@KennyMcG1ll]

I’m at home watching your videos, and it feels like home when i’m watching your videos.

[@alexricky87]

This guy on the Internet was a Professor. This feels like a lecture, in the best way.

[@alexzoin]

"Because whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger. Except, that's not really true but nonetheless experience is generally a good thing and a person whos had a lot of experience is said to be seasoned." Good sentence.

[@edwarddonham-stradling5187]

this is why I season my planet and not my axial tilt

[@PhilipLL]

Fun fact. In norwagian, and probably most Germanic languages we don't use the word season. Here we call it "årstid", which litterally means time of year.

[@awesomedavid2012]

Expanding on tide, the word tidings. "ooh tidings of comfort and joy"

[@juliengroulx3096]

Asaisonner could also mean "to make like the season" since many spices are used ( and possibly were only available) especially in winter or summer.

[@fran6b]

Linguistic and food related topic, my kind of jam! Thanks!

[@patrick1532]

The trend of Adam answering questions I have unconsciously wondered about continues!

[@theuser810]

Ragusea can make videos about otherwise dull topics and make them interesting

[@Harry-x4n]

"Farming is the root cause" while holding a carrot is more than I was ready for this morning. I need a new coffee.

[@tabby7189]

There might be more than you realize in the physical similarity between sowing seed and spreading salt. Arroser is the modern French word for a kind of sprinkling; I mostly hear this word to refer to watering plants, but when exterminators apply chemicals using devices that disperse in a manner resembling that of watering cans, native speakers refer to that with the same verb. If assaisonner referred to spreading grains, there's no reason the word couldn't be used to describe the physical motion of spreading salt.