Comments | oakdragon: Strange Musings on word order

oakdragon

Strange Musings on word order

Jul 12, 2007 11:31

Yesterday, while heading into work, I was listening to our local classical station, KDFC. They played the Thunder and Lightening Polka by Johann Stauss Jr. It got me to thinking....

Why did the expression "Thunder and lightning" get remembered in that order? After all, we all experience lightning before the thunder.

That is all.

thoughts, classical, musing, music

Comments 8

asimovberlioz July 12 2007, 19:47:08 UTC

True, but the expression itself (as well as the German, Donner und Blitz*) is more euphonious when spoken in that order.

* Hence the names of two of Santa's reindeer in that poem of disputed authorship.

oakdragon July 12 2007, 21:38:42 UTC

True. The German does seem to work better that way.

oakdragon July 12 2007, 21:45:16 UTC

The listeners were reminded of the reindeer by the announcers just before the beginning of the piece. It definitely qualifies as one of those few novelty pieces. Kettledrums and cymbals (to retain the poetic order).

maestrodog July 12 2007, 19:54:35 UTC

That's not necessarily true...lighting flashes quite quickly and can be easy to miss if you're not watching for it, whereas thunder you always hear even if you're occupied with another task. Also, you won't always see the lightning if it is far distant or behind a hill or mountain. It's reasonable to assume that people heard thunder more often than they saw lightning, Also, since poetry and language existed before scientific methods, it probably took humanity some time to realize that lightning and thunder were, in fact, connected phenomena. People heard thunder significantly more than they saw lightning, and therefore thought it was important enough to get first billing in the expression.

oakdragon July 12 2007, 21:42:40 UTC

Perhaps.

It is so difficult to try to think like someone who doesn't have the basic understanding of the universe that is part of the modern world. Of course, we also tend to underestimate the understandings held in earlier times. The classic "Flat Earth" hypothesis of "Pre-Columbian Europe." is largely a myth.

Very difficult to avoid erring on one side or the other.

starweaver July 12 2007, 22:03:13 UTC

If you have the digital pics of Pcon 01, just zip them and send them to me. (I am not unscreening the comment with the photo due to its subject matter and who reads my journal so I popped over here to answer you). username@livejournal dot comm will work fine.

I understand! oakdragon July 12 2007, 22:09:55 UTC

I'll see if I can get those zipped and uploaded to you tonight.

Lightning akktri October 1 2008, 16:42:56 UTC

Probably because in a thunderstorm, there can be so many strikes going on at once that you can hear thunder before, during, and after a single lightning strike.
What I don't understand is why a video game about a tiny Chinese man bouncing a ball around with a board on his head is called Thunder and Lightning.