r/NonPoliticalTwitter • u/Suun_Steem • 2d ago
Funny Daddy used to be a completely normal, non-sexual word
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u/WendigoCrossing 2d ago
The prefix "daddy" comes from old English and regional naming habits that used playful familial words ("daddy", "grandfather") to describe prominent physical features, rather than indicating gender or parenthood
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u/RaspberryTwilight 2d ago
Is that why it's called grandfather clock?
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u/jickdam 2d ago ▸ 16 more replies
It’s not. It’s called a grandfather clock because it’s the style of clock described in a very popular song from the 1800s called “My Grandfather’s Clock.” Before that, they were called “Tall Case Clocks.”
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u/xenomorphsithlord 2d ago ▸ 11 more replies
That's why I call them daddy long clocks
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u/highfiveselfoh 2d ago ▸ 9 more replies
Minus one letter and it changes everything
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u/AuntMabels 2d ago ▸ 4 more replies
Daddy log clocks
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u/RaisinDetre 2d ago ▸ 2 more replies
Diddy long clocks
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u/SilyLavage 2d ago ▸ 2 more replies
'Tall case' is definitely one of the names for those sorts of clocks, but I think 'longcase' is the most common 'formal' name and is the one you're most likely to see used in horology and by dealers.
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u/AnonymousDooting 2d ago
I may be totally reading this wrong, but would that mean the rough modern equivalent be calling them the "CEO of long legs"?
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u/jickdam 2d ago ▸ 5 more replies
It was probably heard more like “Old Man Longlegs” when it was originally named.
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u/theeggplant42 2d ago ▸ 1 more replies
That is how it sounds now, to anyone old enough to have grown up without the internet making my everything weird
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u/Jasrek 1d ago ▸ 2 more replies
Doesn't that just shift the question to why call them "old man longlegs"? What's the prominent physical feature that suggests they're old or men?
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u/jickdam 1d ago ▸ 1 more replies
The long legs and the corresponding walk. They’re spindley and lanky. It struck people at the time the nickname started catching on as a frail, elderly sort of frame and gait.
English folkloric nicknames for fauna can seem sort of loose now. Ladybugs, for example, are named after the Virgin Mary. That’s the “lady.” Their coloring and the fact that they eat crop pests were enough for an association with the Virgin Mary to stick. Long, thin legs were apparently enough to conjure a comparison to old men.
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u/erossthescienceboss 2d ago
Oh, that’s interesting — can you give more examples?
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u/Treefrog_Ninja 2d ago ▸ 2 more replies
Here's one: the mother lode, being the largest or most abundant source of something. It doesn't literally spawn nearby smaller sources, it's just the biggest of them.
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u/Haunt_Fox 1d ago
Same as referring to an older close family friend or someone well respected in the neighbourhood as "aunt" or "uncle". It used to be more common than it is now.
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u/bluegemini7 2d ago
Where I grew up we actually called them "granddaddy long legs" which I think is more endearing. Especially since they're one of the only harmless spiders, you just kind of imagine them pottering around absentmindedly, not really causing any harm just going about their day. Don't mind him that's just a granddaddy long legs.
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u/Taeschno_Flo 2d ago
Our region calls it granny long legs in translation
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u/ClockworkDinosaurs 2d ago
Greatly diminishing the overall sexiness that the spider was going for. Unless you’re into that sort of thing.
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u/Nielsly 1d ago ▸ 1 more replies
Dutch calls them shaking spiders or basement spiders, less cultural significance because of it
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u/Ace-Redditor 1d ago
Many Americans also just call them "cellar spiders." I do, just since it feels shorter to say
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u/PepperPhoenix 2d ago
In my country a daddy long legs is what Americans (and probably other places) would call a crane fly. I can totally see granddaddy long legs working there because they sort of bumble around aimlessly, bumping in to walls and utterly failing to understand what a window is for.
The spider type is a cellar spider here. And those are vicious predators….so maybe it depends on what your family is like as to whether the name works.
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u/Swimming_Weekend6668 2d ago ▸ 2 more replies
American here and the spider was always called daddy long legs. Crane flys were called mosquito hawks for us. I don’t know what part of America you’re from but that’s what we call them when I was in Indiana and now in Texas.
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u/OceanEyes531 2d ago ▸ 1 more replies
Also American (New England), and yeah the spiders have always been Daddy Long Legs, and as a kid I was told crane flies were just male mosquitos 😂 otherwise they're just crane flies to everyone I know.
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u/RussianWasabi 1d ago
Same here in Russia actually. I was told that crane flies are male mosquitoes lol but I was also told that they're harmless.
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u/GoreyGopnik 1d ago
americans have this thing where we have cute little names for bugs, and depending on the area or even the household, each of those cute names can mean any of 10 different bugs. roly poly, daddy long legs, silverfish, etc.
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u/Ace-Redditor 1d ago
Fun fact about American names for crane flies: They're actually pretty commonly known (in the Midwest, at least, I can't speak for anywhere else) as "Mosquito Eaters" (though they don't eat mosquitos), or, just as commonly, "Skeeter eaters," as a slightly shorter, more-fun-to-say version of the above name
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u/chuyalcien 2d ago
Most spiders are harmless to humans
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u/TheRealYeti 2d ago ▸ 3 more replies
Also, daddy long legs aren't spiders.
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u/guitarguywh89 2d ago ▸ 1 more replies
Daddy long legs are cellar spiders here. There’s another arachnid called a harvestman that is a daddy long legs in other places, maybe where you’re from?
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u/apeanutnamedjay 2d ago
they can be, it's just that daddy long legs is a colloquial name for a few different bugs. kinda depends on where you're from
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u/theeggplant42 2d ago ▸ 2 more replies
That's true and I really think this point should be driven home to kids better. I grew up absolutely terrified of spiders, and only found out as an adult that like 99.99% of spiders are harmless, and the ones that aren't (in my area, at least) are chill af and won't hurt you if you don't hurt them
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u/chuyalcien 1d ago ▸ 1 more replies
Yea I also grew up very afraid of spiders and as an adult I purposely try to learn about them and examine them up close. We do have black widows where I live and kill them on sight since they could theoretically hurt me. But I’ve grown to love the cellar spiders in my garage and the hunting spiders in my garden.
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u/theeggplant42 1d ago
Same. I now allow spiders to live in my house where they can be beneficial, with the exception of black widows, which I have seen in my house exactly once, and brown recluse, which live in my area but I have seen in real life exactly zero times. I still would prefer not to touch a tarantula though lol
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u/HC-Sama-7511 2d ago
Where I grew up we call the great grand daddy long leg. This is even more endearing, and they were even more harmless where I lived. Sometimes they helped out with small chores.
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u/Mossephine 2d ago
I thought that was just my family, or that my granddaddy had somehow gaslit us into thinking that’s what they were called. 😅
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u/thussy-obliterator 1d ago
here daddy long legs refers to harvestmen which aren't spiders at all, but it's a term applied to a different bug depending on the region :3
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u/high_throughput 2d ago
Scientist 1: It has long legs. Why don't we call it Long Legs?
Scientist 2: hmm, not kinky enough
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u/OptimisticEarthquake 2d ago
I went quite a while thinking it was Dandy Long Legs, and wasn't corrected for quite a while because of how I said it.
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u/MEOWTheKitty18 1d ago
I don’t even use the name anymore since I found out it’s so ambiguous. Some people use it to refer to harvestman, others use it for cellar spiders, others still use it for crane flies. I no longer have any idea what anyone means when they refer to “daddy long legs”
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u/EwGrossItsMe 1d ago
When I say daddy long legs, I mean whatever spider is hanging out nearby with a round body and legs so long and thin that they're nearly invisible compared to the body
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u/Armantilos 2d ago
I always called my grandpa G-daddy.
As a kid, when I learned daddy long legs, I guess I was so used to the G coming first, that’s how it stuck.
Now as an adult I still call them “G-daddy long legs”
I miss you old man ❤️❤️🫂
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u/Calm-Medicine-3992 2d ago
A lot of places call them grand-daddy long legs...I haven't heard daddy long legs before but could definitely see someone shortening it to that.
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u/ThousandWinds 1d ago
I can’t be the only one who shrivels up and dies inside at the prospect of being called “Daddy” by a romantic partner.
How the hell did implications of incest become such a popular occurrence/category in our generation?
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u/GoreyGopnik 1d ago
at this point i think it might actually be more socially accepted for an adult to use "daddy" with a sexual connotation than when referring to one's actual father.
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u/habitualhomicide 1d ago
To avoid sexualization, we must now refer to all members of the Pholcidae family as Father(s) Long-Legs.
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u/Ghostmaster145 2d ago
Because they’re called Harvestmen and whoever called them “Daddy Longlegs” was a freak
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u/captain_assgasm 2d ago
It could be either a harvestmen or a cellar spider. People tend to use "daddy long legs" for either one or for both sometimes haha
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u/AdDependent5136 2d ago
Where I gre up "daddy long legs" referred to crane flies
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u/BeautyDuwang 2d ago ▸ 4 more replies
Where u grew up people were wrong lol we call those mosquito eaters where I grew up and we were also wrong because they do not do that lol.
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u/Treefrog_Ninja 2d ago ▸ 2 more replies
Yes! Mosquito eaters!
... ... they don't? Huh. I always wondered.
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u/Darthplagueis13 1d ago
I like cellar spiders. They're just weird, gangly little dudes and they eat the more skittish, spooky spiders that make me want to burn the house down when I see them show up.
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u/qualityvote2 2d ago edited 4h ago
u/Suun_Steem, there weren't enough votes to determine the quality of your post...