this post was submitted on 14 Sep 2023
639 points (98.5% liked)

Memes

45589 readers
1368 users here now

Rules:

  1. Be civil and nice.
  2. Try not to excessively repost, as a rule of thumb, wait at least 2 months to do it if you have to.

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
 
top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] Sureito@feddit.de 76 points 1 year ago

More like ocean piglet - the small kinda pig looking creature, that was shipped to europe via the ocean

[–] Samsy@lemmy.ml 60 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Diese Kommentarsektion ist nun Eigentum von ... quieck, quiiieeck, quieck....

[–] lugal@lemmy.ml 7 points 1 year ago
[–] PeWu@lemmy.ml 48 points 1 year ago (3 children)

It is consistent with polish too. "Świnka morska" literally means "Sea piggy"

[–] slimarev92@lemmy.world 12 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] tilcica@lemm.ee 6 points 1 year ago

slovene aswell

[–] AI_toothbrush@lemmy.zip 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] Octopus1348@thelemmy.club 3 points 1 year ago

Tengerimalac

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] Holzkohlen@feddit.de 32 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I've have learnt that Capybaras are also sometimes called "Water Pig" in German. We are onto something big here.

[–] Strawberry@lemmy.blahaj.zone 34 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Capybaras actually do hang out in the water at least

[–] tilcica@lemm.ee 26 points 1 year ago (1 children)

i mean guinea pigs were originally bred as a replacement food source for ocean voyages as it tasted the same as a pig but was way smaller

thus the name (morski praőiček - sea piglet in slovene)

[–] lugal@lemmy.ml 6 points 1 year ago

I thought the name is because they come from overseas?

[–] Zeth0s@lemmy.world 29 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Meanwhile in Italy: "little Indian pig"

[–] ComradeR@lemmy.ml 4 points 1 year ago

Same in Brazil. (Porquinho da Índia)

[–] devfuuu@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

Same in Portugal.

Same in France (cochon d'Inde)

[–] nakal@kbin.social 20 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Well,...

  1. The swam over to us (that's why "sea")
  2. They make squeeky sounds (that's why "pig")
[–] volvoxvsmarla@lemm.ee 2 points 1 year ago

It's the same "translation" in Russian btw

[–] SpoopyKing@lemmy.sdf.org 19 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Just wait until you find out how meerkats got their name

[–] glibg10b@lemmy.ml 10 points 1 year ago
load more comments (1 replies)
[–] Ilovethebomb@lemmy.ml 16 points 1 year ago (5 children)

Don't look up what Guinea pigs were originally bred for.

[–] iesou@lemm.ee 43 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Why is the fact that they were/are food so bad? People eat rabbit too.

[–] RaivoKulli@sopuli.xyz 11 points 1 year ago (3 children)

There's a few animals I was surprised to find out some find weird to eat: rabbit, horse, reindeer. I was especially surprised by rabbit. It's such a commonly hunted animal too.

[–] Agent641@lemmy.world 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

In australia we eat our kangaroos and emus too. Also camels, sometimes.

[–] Instigate@aussie.zone 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

And crocs! I went to a buffet at the old Centrepoint Tower revolving restaurant that had emu, kangaroo and crocodile all to eat. I love me some kanga mince, but the steaks are a bit too tough for me. You’ve gotta slow-cook croc too because it’s pretty tough, but it has a really nice chicken-mixed-with-irony/bloody taste.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] atlasraven31@lemm.ee 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

There was some speculation that humans are good at throwing rocks specifically for hunting rabbits before tool development. The sling made it even easier.

[–] Octopus1348@thelemmy.club 4 points 1 year ago (3 children)
[–] RaivoKulli@sopuli.xyz 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I don't know about eating a whole horse but horse meat is sometimes used in meetvursti and similar meat products and horse meat is sold as cold cuts here in Finland. I like it

I checked and the meetvursti I have in the fridge right now has horse meat in it. Apparently bred and slaughtered in Argentina.

[–] AnUnusualRelic@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Someone who's very hungry?

Also smoked horse is awesome.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] atlasraven31@lemm.ee 6 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Giant rabbits seem like an economic alternative to larger animals.

[–] planetaryprotection@midwest.social 17 points 1 year ago (2 children)

A German once sent a dozen giant rabbits to North Korea in order to kick start a giant rabbit breeding program there. The intent was to help them overcome a famine, but instead the rabbits were all eaten at Kim il Sung's birthday party.

[–] original_ish_name@lemm.ee 9 points 1 year ago

North Korea moment

[–] uzay@infosec.pub 3 points 1 year ago

Honestly, if giant rabbits aren't a native species there, it was probably a good call on North Korea's part

[–] Agent641@lemmy.world 16 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I once had a very vivid dream that i lived in a society that valued animal life, but still ate meat, and figured that the best compromise was to breed bigger cows, so that fewer number of animals needed to be killed for more meat. So a genetically engineered ultracow was bred that was the size of a battleship, and it took a whole city to care for and feed it. But something went wrong and the ultracow got out of its pen and just roamed around breaking stuff and nobody could catch it again.

[–] jaybone@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

Why do people always have cooler dreams than me?

[–] AnUnusualRelic@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

There was a Netflix film about that: Okja. The beastie is more pig-like though. It did look kind of tasty, in a Miyazaki way...

[–] spauldo@lemmy.ml 4 points 1 year ago

Look up "rabbit starvation" some time. Rabbit's fine but you have to be sure your diet is diverse enough.

[–] dream_weasel@sh.itjust.works 11 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] Ilovethebomb@lemmy.ml 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] Freitag@feddit.de 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Groß- und Kleinschreibung üben wir aber nochmal wa

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] AnUnusualRelic@lemmy.world 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

What do you mean "originally"?

What did I buy at that roadside bbq stand then?

[–] Ilovethebomb@lemmy.ml 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] AnUnusualRelic@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

Very unlikely in Ecuador.

Fun fact, if you go in pretty much any farm in Ecuador, the ground level (lived in) will have lots of guinea pigs scuttling around (a bit like a lot of farms will have rabbits around, except they're guinea pigs, and they're in the house). Although they aren't typically an everyday meal, they're kept for special occasions, like a wedding or something like that.

[–] GreenMario@lemm.ee 8 points 1 year ago

Piggie Nuggies

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] stebo02@sopuli.xyz 10 points 1 year ago (1 children)

how's guinea pig any better?

[–] DragonTypeWyvern@literature.cafe 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

They're from Guinea!

(Actually it's apparently because they were a food animal that cost about a guinea...)

[–] stebo02@sopuli.xyz 3 points 1 year ago

There's a whole section about it on Wikipedia with a lot of speculation but the tl;dr is we have no clue why they're called that

[–] FluffyPotato@lemm.ee 2 points 1 year ago

Merisiga in Estonian which also translates to sea pig.

load more comments
view more: next β€Ί