I'm with the hypothesis Y stands for yuè (钺).
Which word begins with "y" and looks like an axe in this picture? (2017)
151–160 of 309 posts
Re: Which word begins with "y" and looks like an axe in this picture? (2017)
#152After reading that lengthy, well-researched answer, I felt a bit deflated when I saw another answer lower down, that seems pretty plausible given that the ball in question a knock-off created by a Chinese company:
> 鉞 is yuè in pinyin, a romanization of Chinese. This translates to ax.[0]
We'll probably never know if the origin is yxa or 鉞... or even something entirely different, sadly.
Re: Which word begins with "y" and looks like an axe in this picture? (2017)
#153First comment on the answer: > This is quite the most extraordinary stack exchange answer that I've ever seen. And I couldn't agree more. Well worth perusing if you (like me) usually only check the comments on HN.
Trying to force a research/speculation on a mistake hardly deserves the most extraordinary answer. A better approach: the ball, likely, can be traced to the company producing it. The toys for very young kids tend to be regulated, hence expensive. Contacting the company would be a direct approach, significantly improving the yield to provide a correct answer.
Did you read the entire answer? Because they did exactly that.
Re: Which word begins with "y" and looks like an axe in this picture? (2017)
#154Earlier quoted context omitted.
“Even Jon Skeet cannot parse HTML using regular expressions.”
He meant Chuck Norris.
Jon Skeet is who Chuck Norris calls when confronted with a regex[0]
(Apologies for the Medium link)
[0] https://medium.com/geekculture/the-chuck-norris-of-programmi...
Re: Which word begins with "y" and looks like an axe in this picture? (2017)
#155Earlier quoted context omitted.
I wholeheartedly agree as well. The only nitpick I'd have on this incredible dissertation is on the "U" association with "U-boat" - this is an anglicized form of the German word "Unterseeboot" (undersea boat) which was itself shortened to "U-boot" (presumably the etymology of the Swedish "ubåt"). The first known use of the term "U-boat" is 1914, while the Germans and Swedish armed forces were commissioning submarines…
I assume the author knows why they're called U-boats, but the fact is that modern English speakers don't call them U-boats unless they mean very specifically German World War II submarines and maybe not then. I would use "U-Boat" but only in the same way I'd use "Boomer", to indicate a specific type of vessel in a particular context, if I meant a submarine, such as in a simple drawing, I'd say "submarine" and so woul…
And probably also German WW I submarines which were a factor drawing the US into WW I but might be less discussed as the war had less impact on the US and was longer ago
Re: Which word begins with "y" and looks like an axe in this picture? (2017)
#156This reminds me of a wood board alphabet puzzle that was gifted to my kid which was made to both work in English and French. Every letter from B to Z were easy to guess. However the letter A was the drawing of a little girl playing in a puddle...
We figured out it might stand for Anorak: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parka
Re: Which word begins with "y" and looks like an axe in this picture? (2017)
#157It's not a really really badly drawn ax with a weird wavy yellow handle, it's yellow paint coming out of a paint pot. The reason the "ax" looks nothing at all like an ax is that it isn't supposed to be an ax.
I would accept this as an answer. More like an ink container you dip a quill in. Yellow Ink.
Re: Which word begins with "y" and looks like an axe in this picture? (2017)
#158Wasn't yew wood used for wooden handles in the past? It kind of looks like a yew-handled axe. Surprised that nobody mentioned that option. Fun fact: Ötzi the iceman had a staff and axe made of yew -- https://www.iceman.it/en/equipment/
I thought yew was springy, which made good bows, but I would think might be too much for an axe: you don't want that sproi-oi-oing. I'm not an expert, but you want a little bit of spring so your wrists don't absorb all the shock, but you don't want a whiplash backlash.
Re: Which word begins with "y" and looks like an axe in this picture? (2017)
#159After reading that lengthy, well-researched answer, I felt a bit deflated when I saw another answer lower down, that seems pretty plausible given that the ball in question a knock-off created by a Chinese company: > 鉞 is yuè in pinyin, a romanization of Chinese. This translates to ax. [0] We'll probably never know if the origin is yxa or 鉞... or even something entirely different, sadly. [0] https://english.stackexcha…
The character '鉞' is not commonly used in modern Chinese. I would seriously doubt that anyone teaching Chinese would use this word to illustrate the letter 'Y' in English or Pinyin, especially to toddlers. There are plenty of child-friendly words starting with 'Y' that could be used instead.
Re: Which word begins with "y" and looks like an axe in this picture? (2017)
#160Earlier quoted context omitted.
My favorite is this one: A bear falls into a well. The depth of the well is 19.617 meters, and it takes the bear 2.0000 second to reach the bottom of the well. What is the color of the bear? https://qr.ae/pKqzpC
Maybe I am bad at promoting, but I could not get ChatGPT3.5 anywhere near a logical process to answer this question. https://chat.openai.com/share/67998d60-0f81-410e-ba8b-ec5a0f...
I couldn't get GPT4 to answer it either, even with several variations on the prompt. It gets too fixated on the "bear" part, so it just assumes that the answer is "white", because that's a "common trick question".
I find it interesting that it disregards the rest of the question, and just picks "the most common answer to a trick question involving the color of a bear"!