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English, Good Morning vs Good Night
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this post was submitted on 20 Sep 2026
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Showerthoughts
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A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. The most popular seem to be lighthearted clever little truths, hidden in daily life.
Here are some examples to inspire your own showerthoughts:
- Both “200” and “160” are 2 minutes in microwave math
- When you’re a kid, you don’t realize you’re also watching your mom and dad grow up.
- More dreams have been destroyed by alarm clocks than anything else
Rules
- All posts must be showerthoughts
- The entire showerthought must be in the title
- No politics
- If your topic is in a grey area, please phrase it to emphasize the fascinating aspects, not the dramatic aspects. You can do this by avoiding overly politicized terms such as "capitalism" and "communism". If you must make comparisons, you can say something is different without saying something is better/worse.
- A good place for politics is c/politicaldiscussion
- Posts must be original/unique
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So too does "wherefore". In old English, "where" meant "what" and "fore" meant "for". So "wherefore?" meant "what for?", i.e "for what reason". "Therefore" is the opposite of "wherefore", meaning "that for", i.e. "for that reason"
That one has confused many a teenager reading Romeo and Juliet for the first time because it's not commonly used much anymore apart from some versions of the Bible, and the idiom "Whys and Wherefores". When she says "Wherefore art thou Romeo?", Juliet isn't asking where Romeo is. She's asking "Why are you Romeo?" As in she's lamenting that the boy she met is specifically Romeo, a Montague, a family enemy. She wishes he weren't. Which is why she followed that sentence with "Deny thy father and refuse thy name."
P.S. "how come" means "why" because it's a shortened phrase. It could stand for something like "how did it come about that he died?" Or "how comes it that you know my name?" That is a bit of a mouth full, so people just casually dropped most of it to "how come he died?" and "how come you know my name?"