Subtitles

I just saw this funny video about subtitles. So what's that got to do with this post? Well, with me, it's not so easy to stop thinking. And sometimes when I think, it doesn't necessarily have to be along sane lines.

I was thinking about how wrong the word 'subtitles' is (among other wrong words in the English language. Really, the language is too mad!) Just think about it. The word subtitles is made up of two words. 'Sub' and 'titles'.*

'Sub' is neither meant to be short for substitute here nor is it meant to be submarines or subway sandwiches. And here, please do not even think of sub/dom lifestyles because I apparently haven't. This is a U-rated blog. And if you know what sub/dom is without googling and you're below 18 years of age, then chain your left arm and left leg to the nearest wall and give yourself 60 lashes while sticking a needle into your.... Well, ahem, let's not get carried away. Coming back to what I was saying, when I think about it, 'sub' might have been used a prefix that means secondary or beneath, as in subhuman or substandard. Makes sense.

Which brings us to 'titles'. There is nothing about the way the word is used which suggests that it's a title. It's not. It's merely a translation. Trust the English (the people) to come up with majorly confusing English (the language) issues. Why do they have to confuse the hell out of us innocent peace-loving rest-of-the-world people? Sigh.

So here, let me start a petition to change the word 'subtitles' to 'the translation of what the character on screen is saying, the text of which appears on the screen on the bottom in a language that can presumably be understood by the person watching', which is what it should have been to begin with. That would have saved us such a lot of unnecessary blogging. It's so simple and direct, not to mention exact in meaning with regard to what it intends to convey. I don't know why the English (the people) didn't think of it...


*These sentences reminded me of the following quote.

Maybe in order to understand mankind, we have to look at the word itself:
"Mankind". Basically, it's made up of two separate words - "mank" and "ind".
What do these words mean ? It's a mystery, and that's why, so is mankind. - Jack Handy.

And everyone needs to read his other quotes. Such hilarious madness indeed!