890: Etymology

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Etymology

Title text: For some reason, my childhood suspension of disbelief had no problem with the fact that this ancient galaxy is full of humans, but was derailed by language. There's no Asia OR Europe there, so where'd they get all the Indo-European roots?

Explanation

This comic is a reference to the sci-fi classic Star Wars. Obi-Wan Kenobi (on the left with the beard) and Luke Skywalker (who is on the left side of the table in the first frame) are trying to get off the planet Tatooine secretly and they enlist help from Han Solo and Chewbacca. Chewbacca is the very hairy one because he is a wookie from the planet Kashyyyk. Han Solo's ship is named the "Millennium Falcon".

Etymology is the study of the history of words, their origins, and how their form and meaning have changed over time. Randall (the author of the comic) wonders what Luke would say to Han if he had no idea what a falcon was. We as viewers accept it because of the etymology of the word in our world, but there is no evidence of a falcon in the Star Wars universe - especially for Luke who has been raised only on Tatooine, a desert world.

In the image text, Randall references the fact that Star Wars is set "a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away" and is curious how humans came to be in the Star Wars universe even though they (or we I guess) were not yet on Earth. The reference to Indo-European roots is another reference to etymology. As an example, certain words will have Indo-European roots because the word originated in Indo-European languages.

Transcript

[Obi-Wan Kenobi, Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, and Chewbacca are sitting in Chalmun's Spaceport Cantina, a wretched hive of scum and villainy.]

Han Solo: Han Solo. I'm captain of the Millenium Falcon.

Luke Skywalker: What's that?

Han: It's the ship that made the Kessel Run in less than 12 Parsecs!

Luke: No, what's a falcon?

Han: ...

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Discussion

It always bothered me how an independent gunslinger with no team of engineers or assistants has a faster ship than the entirety of the empire and all it's technical expertise. Where did he get his funding and kit from? Davidy²²[talk] 10:09, 9 March 2013 (UTC) The same place as the Falcon.... gambling with people like Lando? (Also Falconry, by whatever name, was practiced in Mesopotamia and by the Bedouin in arguably at least partially desert-planet-like areas. It's quite possible that the ancestral 'Falcons' or equivalent translator-microbe-referenced creatures originated on Tatooine. A long, long time later, in a galaxy (and planet) much, much less far away (basically, here... and now) our Earth falcons are at least one branch of descendents.) Now, no doubts "Millenium" refers to the Imperial (previously Republican) standard years, but it begs the question of what the length and nature of the Tattooine 'year' is, given it's a binary-star orbitter, eh? ;) 178.99.81.144 16:51, 30 April 2013 (UTC)