Yesterday I was eating an eggroll for lunch, and for the first time realized that soy sauce is called "soy sauce" because it is made from soybeans. The name, "soy sauce", contains information, is self-descriptive. Yet, to me, it could have been "XYZ sauce". It was a label devoid of any meaning except as a cipher for "salty brown liquid I put on food."
I don't find this noteworthy because of this one incident. I have noticed it before. For example, in our yard we have flowers called morning glories. It was the second year we had these flowers that I realized that they get that name from the fact they bloom in the morning and close during the heat of the afternoon.
I'm left wondering how many other lables have meanings that I have lost through repetively using them as pointers to something.
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