Is cereal really just soup? Or is it salad (with milk being the dressing)? Maybe it’s that dry ceral is the meal and the milk is the condiment (like adding ketchup to french fries). The answer of course, is that there is no answer. It’s whatever we agree upon. Which brings us to a larger conversation Michael Stevens wants to have about different linguistic concepts like reduplication and retronyms.

Reduplication is when a word is repeated, either in part or in whole, for emphasis or the modify the word’s meaning, and retronyms are words that are modified to distinguish the original version of something from more recent versions. (via Laughing Squid)

Watch it below.

Then watch this companion piece on the arbitrary nature of things like the alphabet, gendered names, and base 10.

I know. I’m sorry. It’s the Monday after your long winters break and I’m making you THINK.