this post was submitted on 25 Feb 2024
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Showerthoughts

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Technically they're littermates...

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[–] MrJameGumb@lemmy.world 34 points 8 months ago (2 children)

Why not just call them a brood while your at it? It's because we're humans, and we don't like to be reminded that we're all just one worldwide catastrophe away from reverting back to savage animals.

[–] muntedcrocodile@lemmy.world 14 points 8 months ago (1 children)

World wide catashtrophy more like 3 warm meals

[–] intensely_human@lemm.ee 3 points 8 months ago

If everybody skipped 3 meals at once that would be a global catastrophe

[–] JackFrostNCola@lemmy.world 12 points 8 months ago

Because then if your twin children got into a fight whilst cutting out paper star decorations you would get to say its star craft brood war.

[–] Fondots@lemmy.world 25 points 8 months ago

Litter is usually reserved for animals that typically have more than one child at a time, it's normal for a dog, cat, mouse, etc. to have multiple babies at once, whereas with animals like humans, pandas, etc. it's a somewhat unusual occurrence so we call it something different

[–] Thorny_Insight@lemm.ee 19 points 8 months ago

Twins and triples are words that contain information about the unusual number of children one had. Litter on the other hand is unspecific and is used to describe the group of newborn children of an animal for which it's typical to have more than one be born at the same time.

[–] Everythingispenguins@lemmy.world 18 points 8 months ago (2 children)

Now I just want some to come in to work and request a week off because their wife is about to have a litter of kids. Just think about the look on their bosses face

[–] clockwork_octopus@lemmy.world 4 points 8 months ago

Hahaha me too

[–] itsnotits@lemmy.world 1 points 8 months ago

their boss's* face

[–] mangaskahn@lemmy.world 11 points 8 months ago

Be the change you want to see. Start calling it that and see if it catches on.

[–] hedgehogging_the_bed@lemmy.world 9 points 8 months ago

Until I had twins I didn't know they have a word for those of us born one at a time, singleton.

Now I catch myself using it in regular conversation and have to try not to. Example: "I've got twins and my bestie has twins and a singleton so we have to travel in her 7-seater van for day trips."

[–] Silentiea@lemm.ee 9 points 8 months ago

Hey, look! I found a furry!

[–] coffinwood@feddit.de 8 points 8 months ago (1 children)

litter also means trash. you wouldn‘t want to be called rubbish.

[–] Gradually_Adjusting@lemmy.ca 6 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Maybe we should get the siblings alone and see if they think the others are trash. Prisoner's dilemma style.

[–] metaStatic@kbin.social 1 points 8 months ago (1 children)

what's the dilemma though?

[–] Gradually_Adjusting@lemmy.ca 1 points 8 months ago

You only call them both litter if they both think the other sibling is trash

[–] TenderfootGungi@lemmy.world 5 points 8 months ago (2 children)

It is used and has a negative connotation.

[–] Adalast@lemmy.world 4 points 8 months ago (2 children)

It only has a negative connotation because it is generally an "animal" word and humans believe themselves special and somehow above and separate from animals. It is the same with referring to someone using an object pronoun. Call someone "it" in English and see how fast they lose their shit. Like, mother fucker, you warp spacetime and have volume, you are a fucking object.

[–] bigboig@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 8 months ago

Yeah, but the negative connotation is the exclusion of agency

[–] haui_lemmy@lemmy.giftedmc.com 1 points 8 months ago

Unique perspective right there. I appreciate the rare respect for non human species though. Feels like the vast majority here has hierarchical thoughts when it comes to other species.

[–] BleatingZombie@lemmy.world 1 points 8 months ago

People already refer to their (differently aged) groups of children a litter. I don't think I've ever heard it used in a negative way, though

[–] omgarm@feddit.nl 3 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Identical twins should be called clones.

[–] abbadon420@lemm.ee 8 points 8 months ago (1 children)

They're not clones though. For one, a clone has one parent and it's dna is identical to it's parent. Twins have two parents and their dna is only identical to each other.

[–] IWantToFuckSpez@kbin.social 4 points 8 months ago (1 children)

So they’re copies of each other?

[–] Num10ck@lemmy.world 6 points 8 months ago (1 children)
[–] TheGalacticVoid@lemm.ee 4 points 8 months ago
[–] technomad 2 points 8 months ago

Yeah, I'm sure they want to be dehumanized like that...

[–] banichan@lemmy.world 1 points 8 months ago

Because they're not cats.

I hope I've been informative.