Welcome to Learned, a short, weekly look at language, education, and everything else under the sun. I’m Joel, linguist, teacher, slacker. This week, we're fun guys.
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By now, you've probably heard a new initialism, termed NFT, in the news. If you have, it's most likely because because Christie's auction house sold one as an artwork and made the artist a cool 69 million dollars. The artist, Beeple, created an entirely digital work of art - as in, there is no official physical copy of the work - and attached a piece of code certifying that that one digital copy is the one that was sold. So, no matter how many times the artwork is copied or reproduced, the image with the embedded code is the only one with that embedded code. I think. Maybe.
NFT stands for non-fungible token and I'm not actually going to get any deeper into what an NFT is or how they work. A writer and activist I follow, Sean Bonner, has done a better write-up than I'll ever be able to, mainly because he seems to understand the technology while I do not. Instead, I'm going to be looking at that word in the middle: fungible. Because, if you're anything like me, you took one look at the phrase "non-fungible token" and said, "I'll bet the guy that thought up that phrase is a real fungi."
Sorry, not sorry.
When I first read about NFTs, I knew the word fungible, but I don't think I could have defined it. Truthfully, I wasn't even sure if it would be pronounced fun-ji-ble or fun-ghi-ble. Or, fun-guy-i-bel or something. Because English is always gonna English. So let's start there. What does it mean and how do you say it?
From Merriam-Webster:
being something (such as money or a commodity) of such a nature that one part or quantity may be replaced by another equal part or quantity in paying a debt or settling an account
capable of mutual substitution
readily changeable to adapt to new situations
But remember, NFT stands for non-fungible. In other words, the reason the technology underlying this whole...thing ended up with this particular initialism is that the code cannot be replaced or changed. A single NFT, when attached to an artwork, a piece of audio or video, or some other piece of digital ephemera, purports to be the only instance of that code in existence.
By the way, MW says it's pronounced fun-jeh-ble (IPA for the masochists among you: /fən-jə-bəl/).
And speaking of our trusty dictionary, they have added this curious note to their entry:
(Fungible) derives from the Latin verb fungi, meaning "to perform (no relation to the noun "fungus" and its plural "fungi") - is a word that often shows up in legal contexts.
Which prompted the question, then what else is it related to? Etymology online gives us a little bit of context by relating fungible to function through the Latin stem and then tracing a hypothetical route from Latin back to a "Proto-Indo-European root meaning 'to enjoy,' with derivatives referring to agricultural products." They go on to provide a full list of terms derived from this root, including the aforementioned fungible and function as well as:
defunct; fructify; fructose; frugal; fruit; fruitcake; fruitful; fruition; fruitless; frumentaceous;...perfunctory; tutti-frutti; usufruct.
And now I really want to know the full etymology of tutti-frutti. But, before I look that up, where does fungus come from and why isn't it related to the Latin fungi?
Again from Etymology Online:
The Latin word is believed to be cognate with (or derived from) Greek sphongos, the Attic form of spongos "sponge"
There we have it, one word stems out from "to enjoy" the other from "sponge. Ironically, although you can most definitely enjoy your mushrooms, if you don't want to end up tripping over your salad, it is advisable to always remember that not all fungi are fungible.
A little bit of housekeeping before I close out this week's letter. You may be aware of a little bit of a kerfuffle surrounding Substack (the service that hosts this newsletter) and its de facto editorial stance and decision to pay some writers to produce content. These are significant enough issues that I am considering transferring Learned to a new host. If I do so, you should see no disruption in delivery. However, if it's been a week or two and you do not have a new issue in your inbox, please make sure and come back to the Learned About page, where I will make sure to link the newsletter's new home.
Regarding the schedule, this issue is number 52 and thus the last issue from Volume 3 of Learned. There will be a concluding issue, number 26 to the Glossary, Learned's younger sibling that publishes on alternate Fridays, and then the next issue of Learned will be Volume 4, number 1. Thank you for staying with me this far and I hope you stick around as I figure out what the next year is going to look like.
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Until then, stay safe, stay curious. Learn something.
Joel