4 ms·

Hmm I don't know if its arbitary, I can tell if a food is 'hot' or 'cold' just by eating it, even if I've never seen it before. For me, only eating 'hot' foods

• riffraff 16y ago
  if the hot/cold idea is deeply rooted in you, it makes sense that you are able to tell what is what, but that does not mean it's not arbitrary, just that you have assimilated the method on a deeper level. Consider italians, and pasta. Basically everybody knows "instinctively" if a sauce makes sense with short or long pasta, but in the end it's still completely arbitrary :)
  • kranner 16y ago
    Not sure you have a basis for declaring it arbitrary yet, not even in the absence of evidence that it isn't.
• kranner 16y ago
  To me, the hotness/coldness of a food is not always obvious. Would you have guessed that apples are 'hot'?