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Cake day: August 11th, 2023

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  • It’s not a direct connection, but trying to say a dwarf planet isn’t a planet, when it’s got the word planet right there, is generating the kind of semantic confusion that, carried forward, would lead to the conclusion that people with dwarfism aren’t people. The -oid suffix already conveys “is almost the thing, but not quite,” such as in words like humanoid, asteroid, android, and (most importantly) the aforementioned planetoid. Making planetoid the official word for “is in ways like a planet but actually isn’t” would have been working with existing etymology, rather than creating needless confusion.


  • There are plenty of linguistically unintuitive artifacts kicking around (a peanut is neither a pea nor a nut, a jellyfish is not a fish, all of the “berries” which aren’t berries), but if we’re deliberately creating brand new labels in the 21st century, it might have been nice if we’d avoided that kind of oddness, given the opportunity.


  • My objection to “dwarf planet” is purely a linguistically aesthetic one.

    “Dwarf planet” ≠ planet

    …implies…

    “Dwarf person” ≠ person

    …and I feel like the people under 4’10" (147 cm) would object to that distinction.

    Also, “planetoid” was a perfectly cromulent word which Star Trek had been using for decades already.