19 ms·
Which word begins with "y" and looks like an axe in this picture? (2017)
- glimshe 3y agoYAA - Yet Another Axe
- pfdietz 3y agoThe Magritte ball has a pipe for letter P but, of course, that isn't right.
- makach 3y agoThe handle is yellow. Maybe it was about the color than the object? Amazing response ticked as answer.
- itsyellowpaint 3y agoIt's yellow paint being squeezed out of a tube. The handle is the paint. The axe-head is the tube. The number of people in the comments still speculating and believing in the aye theory is funny. It's literally in the following answer on the StackExchange thread. Or maybe I'm the one who feels the "swoosh" of the joke going over my head, and everyone pretends to see an axe for lulz.
- kalleboo 3y agoIt looks nothing at all like a paint tube though. And why is the paint coming out the side of it? Also. This clipart image comes up for a google image search of the Chinese characters for "Axe" https://i.stack.imgur.com/Lvi0V.jpg https://i.stack.imgur.com/Lvi0V.jpg
- CRConrad 3y agoIt isn't yellow paint being squeezed out of a tube. The handle isn't the paint. The axe-head isn't the tube. The number of people in the comments still speculating and believing in the "yellow paint" theory would be funny, if it weren't so sad. It's literally in the following obviously incorrect and therefore not accepted answer on the StackExchange thread. Or maybe you're just temporarily delirious and can't see that the picture is utterly obviously of an an axe. Or you're just pretending to, for "lulz".
- Guthur 3y agoIt's obviously Yew handled axe :).
- thedrake 3y agoI was the one who solved this. It was an exciting time
- lwhi 3y agoWell done for completing God's own work.
- swores 3y agoAm I missing some joke or wordplay, or are you just a genuine believer who felt God warranted a mention here?
- Ancapistani 3y agoAs far as I know, “you’re doing God’s work” is a relatively common - if somewhat archaic - idiom. It means roughly “I appreciate what you’re doing.”
- swores 3y agoAh, yeah if it had been worded like that I'd have recognised it as the idiom, but hadn't occurred to me it could be an unusual wording of that idiom.
- daveslash 3y agoI also take it to mean that it's either work others are often unwilling to do, or something that's really difficult, or something that I've been wanting for a long time but haven't gotten anyone to help me with. For example: There's a fluorescent light above my desk that flickers and has been driving me crazy for years. I can't get facilities to fix it because they need a ticket that's approved by management and has an approved budget, and all their other tasks are more urgent.... so it slowly drives me mad for a year. Finally, a facilities person says "You know what... I'm not supposed to do this without management approval... but I'll just fix this real quick and it'll be our secret" ..... Me: "Oh, thank you, you're doing God's work"
- 3y ago
- Rapzid 3y agoThey had me at Yxa. They really did.
- dudeinjapan 3y agoIt means "to axe the question Y?"
- DeathArrow 3y agoI wonder why no one emailed the Chinese company and ask them where the letter comes from. That would be the simplest and better solution.
- dspillett 3y agoThey did?: > reached out to Hedstrom via their online contact form, Twitter, and Facebook. They replied… Though it turns out to be a knock-off, finding the actual manufacturer might be difficult.
- CRConrad 3y agoThat's an American company. I think the GP meant the Chinese knock-off manfacturer. And yeah, the reason nobody did was probably because it was impossible.
- pvorb 3y agoThat axe managed to kill some time.
- Communitivity 3y agoI came up with 'Yaks', plural of a type of beast of burden/farm animal. Probably not the solution, but I didn't see the solution on the post, just a Swedish word suggested. What was the solution decided on? Ok, I conflated 'looks like' with 'sounds like'. Still curious about the solution though.
- CRConrad 3y agoDid you just not scroll down to the accepted answer?
- bluenose69 3y agoA web search on "ax y" gave me the following ... maybe that's the answer. Ax = y
- alexanderchr 3y agoy = Ax + e Solved it
- sriku 3y agoI saw the "Yxa" note, but couldn't it be for "Yew" which is a tough wood used to make axe handles? It also fits the curved handle picture in this article - https://www.woodworkingtrade.com/best-wood-for-axe-handles/ https://www.woodworkingtrade.com/best-wood-for-axe-handles/
- replwoacause 3y agoWow, that Dan Bron sure put in some legwork. Impressive level of investigation. Same goes for many of the other commenters. It’s pretty impressive when people ban together to use their collective talents and minds this way. Are there any groups/subreddits or other places online where people get together to do this kind of stuff?
- hyperthesis 3y agoIt's the mods who ban together locked as interesting
- remh 3y agor/rbi
- jiffygist 3y agoThere is a well-known Russian meme called "китайские кубики" https://trinixy.ru/18802-kitajjskie_kubiki_polnaja_versija_72_kubika.html https://trinixy.ru/18802-kitajjskie_kubiki_polnaja_versija_7... That set of toy cubes had everything: letter not matching a word, image not matching a word (like an orc from Lineage 2 for "щука"), made up words like "knifefork" and of course lots of typos.
- defanor 3y agoTook me about a minute to identify it is a yo-yo (without reading any of the discussions), and they point out there that the official ball has a yo-yo for Y, so I am quite convinced that it is supposed to be a yo-yo as well. Just not drawn particularly nicely: the yellow bit is a cartoon string, the blue-and-white bit is the yo-yo's "body". Edit: although now that I finished reading the rest of the investigation, there are quite a few arguments for "yxa" as well. Still seems like an odd coincidence to see a yo-yo there myself, and then to read that it is supposed to be a yo-yo on the official ball.
- CRConrad 3y agoHow the... I think you need to visit an optometrician.
- appplication 3y ago> Comments are not for extended discussion Sums up stack overflow moderation. At least in the future any time anyone has any tangential questions about children’s toys, axes, or the letter y, they can point to this and mark it as duplicate.
- hyperthesis 3y agoFINALLY the stackexchange cookie-dialog works (goes away) in old FF (68.11.0)!
- darkwater 3y agoDid the answer's author just misspelled his surname, which should be "Brown" instead of "Bron"? /s This was definitely a thriller-like read!
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- superseeplus 3y agoMost of the images are hard to figure out. For example, if the picture of the cat was not next to a C, I would have thought it to be a monkey. I would have assumed the dog to be actually a pet cow. The blade of the so called axe does look like a beaker or an old fashioned fountain pen ink bottle pouring out yellow ink or paint.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- simongr3dal 3y agoI like the yellow theory. Looks like the top of a paint can spraying some yellow paint.
- turquoisevar 3y agoThis was quite the ride and entertaining too. It’s also a window in what SO could’ve been
- moogly 3y agoClearly it's a yklwa.
- familiaisall 3y ago[flagged]
- NanoYohaneTSU 3y agoVery interesting, but I don't really understand why it can't just be Yaxe?
- CRConrad 3y agoProbably because that's not a word a toddler would be expected to know. Nor anyone else, for that matter.
- AtNightWeCode 3y agoYak shaver?
- MaximilianEmel 3y agoI think the "DNE" stands for "Do Not Exceed [air-pressure not listed]".
- toasted-subs 3y agoAs somebody with a y in my name it feels like I am always the one outside in the cold.
- onlinesimon 3y agoMaybe begins with a "Y" but sounds like axe? How about a "Yak." Also, many of the letters I can see in the photos seem to be of animals.
- rkagerer 3y agoI'll go with poorly drawn picture of a Yo-Yo.
- DigiDigiorno 3y agoYeet
- saaaaaam 3y agoPerhaps it’s “Yikes! It’s an axe!”
- MenhirMike 3y agoMaybe it's Yaxche, which sounds like Axe.
- djmips 3y agoIn Swedish
- nick238 3y agoIn Soviet Russia, yo-yo is axe.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- lolinder 3y agoApparently this was discussed here while the investigation was ongoing, and an HN user (thedrake) was responsible for finding the ball on alibaba: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14672359 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14672359
- nuclearnice1 3y agoBe sure to read that link with showdead. thedrake’s victorious final comment “ SOLVED!!!!!! I spent several hours looking for an axe or a hatchet or an Ubåt…” is dead. Possibly because of a heuristic aimed at killing spam posts with too many links.
- dang 3y agoThanks! it's https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14673626 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14673626 and I've unkilled it now. (It was killed because of the lmgtfy link btw)
- cactusplant7374 3y ago[flagged]
- pksebben 3y agoI hesitate to engage, but I'm curious. What, in your opinion, is "HN Worthy" exactly?
- cactusplant7374 3y ago[flagged]
- pksebben 3y agoc'mon, man, that's not an answer. I'm asking for details! The value I can see in this post, as relates to what I think merits HN: - there's a deep dive into researching a supply chain - the research in question is an outstanding example of OSINT - great reading over a cup of coffee - I didn't have to read about freaking NFTs or anybody's politics
- donatj 3y agoLooking at it, I suspect it is actually just a mediocre illustration of yellow paint being squeezed out of a tube as one of the contents suggests.
- asdfghqwerty1 3y agoYeet
- codetrotter 3y agoIs the past tense of yeet, yate or yote, or yeeted?
- saaaaaam 3y agoIt’s irregular, so it’s yat.
- notpushkin 3y agoI’d go with yeet/yet/yet, like meet (the confusion makes it even better). “Yotten” does look peculiar, though.
- saaaaaam 3y agoMeet moot met mitten So it’s probably yitten.
- trjordan 3y agoFriends, please, click on the link. There's a long and interesting investigation that answers the question, which is presumably why this was posted.
- WJW 3y agoFirst comment on the answer: > This is quite the most extraordinary stack exchange answer that I've ever seen. And I couldn't agree more. Well worth perusing if you (like me) usually only check the comments on HN.
- saaaaaam 3y agoI’ve just read a dissertation about a plastic ball. I’m not sure what I think about that. It’s a mixture of impressed, horrified and bemused…
- ajmurmann 3y agoTo me it felt like a new season of Serial
- laborcontract 3y agoIn this case, only checking the comments on HN brings about a feeling of dismay at the sad state of comments on HN. People should indeed read the top answer. I assumed it ended after the first paragraph and only after your comment read the rest of it. Quite a rabbit hole and great investigation!
- primitivesuave 3y agoI wholeheartedly agree as well. The only nitpick I'd have on this incredible dissertation is on the "U" association with "U-boat" - this is an anglicized form of the German word "Unterseeboot" (undersea boat) which was itself shortened to "U-boot" (presumably the etymology of the Swedish "ubåt"). The first known use of the term "U-boat" is 1914, while the Germans and Swedish armed forces were commissioning submarines around a decade prior (in 1906 and 1904 respectively).
- lolinder 3y agoIt looks like it could also be an anglicized version of the modern Swedish word for submarine, which appears to be Ubåt [0]. In the US we definitely usually associate the word U-boat with the Germans, but I'm not sure how else one would anglicize Ubåt. [0] https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ub%C3%A5t https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ub%C3%A5t
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- sesm 3y agoThis is most likely the correct answer: https://english.stackexchange.com/a/396624 https://english.stackexchange.com/a/396624
- dishsoap 3y agoMaybe you missed the answer above it?
- ars 3y agoI believe StackOverflow randomizes the order of answers, you should link or otherwise reference the one you mean, rather then specify its position.
- dishsoap 3y agoFor me they always seem to be sorted by vote count. Nevertheless, here is the link: https://english.stackexchange.com/a/396697 https://english.stackexchange.com/a/396697
- wvenable 3y agoThe answer above it: https://english.stackexchange.com/a/396697 https://english.stackexchange.com/a/396697 Spoiler: It's axe clipart
- nomilk 3y agoThe most upvoted answer gives the explanation the ball manufacturer is Swedish ('axe' in Swedish starts with a 'y'), but other answers say it was probably manufactured in a country where English wasn't the first language (e.g. China) and the 'y' for axe was simply a typo. The evidence against the Swedish explanation is that the ball says c for 'cat' and d for 'dog', but in swedish the translations are 'katt' and 'hund' respectively. This may be a case where the most upvoted answer is likely wrong, but because it was so entertaining and took so much effort, it was upvoted much more than the boring (but probably correct) answer. EDIT: I had only skimmed the most upvoted answer, it does indeed trace the ball's manufacture to China and suggest the 'y for axe' is a typo. Apologies for the confusion.
- jomohke 3y agoThe most upvoted answer does track it down to a Chinese source.
- nomilk 3y agoMy mistake (I completely confess to only having skimmed the most upvoted answer!). > Our suspects! Hiding in China, right where our intelligence said they'd be. And all the other images match as well. And the lead came from HN itself!
- messe 3y agoMy thinking is that somebody who is not a native reader/writer of the latin alphabet, or English, confused h/y and the picture denotes a hatchet.
- sebzim4500 3y agoThe most upvoted answer doesn't say that it's a Swedish designed ball, rather that it is a Chinese knockoff where they moved things around and replaced some of the symbols with ones from books/toys for Swedish kids. Hence why the ones that match the 'official' ball make sense in English but the ones that don't make more sense in Swedish.
- jonex 3y ago
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- codetrotter 3y ago> I think the manufacturer of your son's ball mixed in a Swedish word I found this super unconvincing at first. But they just kept goin. And going. And going. And the more I scrolled and the more I read, I started to think that they are right. And by the end I was fully convinced! Well worth reading. Thanks for sharing, OP!
- kelnos 3y agoSame! But then I read another answer further down that suggested it might be a Chinese word for axe, romanized in pinyin as yuè (for 鉞). Since the knock-off ball seems to have been made by a Chinese company, that seems more likely to me. That doesn't explain the weird u-boat thing, though.
- rob74 3y agoThe "weird u-boat thing" further supports the Swedish hypothesis - "ubåt" or "undervattensbåt" are the standard terms for a submarine in Swedish (https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ub%C3%A5t https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ub%C3%A5t). The word "U-boat" is also used in English, however with the meaning "German submarine during WW1/2" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U-boat https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U-boat) - but I don't think it's widespread enough (or appropriate) to be eligible for a toy.
- berkes 3y agoWhy English doesn't just call them "under-sea-boat" or "underwater-boat" has been a mistery to me for a long time. (as a Dutch, we call 'em Onderzeeboot or Onderzeeër - underseaboat, undersea-er). It's so much simpler than combining latin/scientific terms.
- evilduck 3y agoSubmarine basically transliterates to “undersea-er”. In a hodge podge language like English it doesn’t seem strange.
- 3y ago
- redcobra762 3y agoWhy do I remember something like this resulting in the answer being “yeoman” as in a worker of land, also considered one who often chops wood? The effort given in the top answer is extraordinary, and is probably the real reason for the submission, so perhaps trying to answer the actual question is off topic…
- ChainOfFools 3y agoY for yellow, given that's the color of the handle and that you need something to be representative of the color. Even having a yellow square could confuse it with S for square, or having a banana can confuse it with B for banana. Similar problems exist with S for Sun, C for (a yellow) crayon etc. Also the handle is what has been drawn superimposed over the letter. Still, confusion with A for axe isnt any better than S for sun or whatever. Maybe the reasoning was that axe was semantically far enough away from being one of the usual standard bearers of the color yellow, that children would associate the letter with the color rather than the object?
- rjmunro 3y agoI'm liking the yellow theory as the "axe head" looks a log like the top of a paint tube like the one in this poster: https://www.kingandmcgaw.com/prints/david-booth-malcolm-and-nancy-fowler-fine-white-line/tate-gallery-by-tube-1986-437216 https://www.kingandmcgaw.com/prints/david-booth-malcolm-and-...
- nurbl 3y agoGood observation, it could conceivably be a slightly distorted image of paint coming out of a tube! The waviness of the axe handle does look quite strange. However it'd be a really counter intuitive choice to use a green Y for "yellow"...
- frostburg 3y agoA bucket of yellow paint would be a likely choice if that were the case.
- thrnfnfnrrn 3y agoA bucket of yellow paint would be "B"
- shermantanktop 3y agoBy that logic, it might as well be "A."
- vdaea 3y ago[flagged]
- linuxftw 3y agoMy personal theory is double translation of sorts. The item in question could be a 'hatchet.' Many romance languages use 'j' for the 'h' sound in English. Somebody somewhere was looking at 'jatchet.' Next, someone assumed that the j was pronounced 'y' as in a Germanic language (and also Semitic?). Thus, they ended up with 'yatchet.' Of course, 'y' is right next to 'h' on a qwerty keyboard, so it could just be a typo if they're going for hatchet.
- messe 3y ago> Of course, 'y' is right next to 'h' on a qwerty keyboard, so it could just be a typo if they're going for hatchet. I could also potentially see somebody, not entirely comfortable with reading/writing latin script, mixing them up as the glyphs aren't entirely dissimilar.
- callumprentice 3y agoI don't think that's an axe, I think it's a (poorly drawn) tip of a tube of YELLOW paint.
- dylan604 3y agothat's creative, and now I see it this way too. if only the "tube" was oriented so the "paint" was more lined up with the mouth. that would make for an awkward yaxe though
- magneticnorth 3y agoI was convinced of this initially, but then I went back, deeper into the rabbit hole of the stackexchange discussion, and someone tracked down this image as clipart attached to the chinese characters for "axe" - so the illustrator did choose this image as specifically being an axe.
- callumprentice 3y agofascinating - thank you!
- lockdown 3y agoI think that's what it's supposed to be. Probably one artist's initial sketch was handed off to another artist who misinterpreted it as an axe and rendered as such
- callumprentice 3y agoThat makes sense.
- CephalopodMD 3y agoThe most exhilarating true-crime citizen-sleuth detective story I've ever read. Eat your heart out, Serial.
- mmastrac 3y agoWasn't yew wood used for wooden handles in the past? It kind of looks like a yew-handled axe. Surprised that nobody mentioned that option. Fun fact: Ötzi the iceman had a staff and axe made of yew -- https://www.iceman.it/en/equipment/ https://www.iceman.it/en/equipment/
- silisili 3y ago> It kind of looks like a yew-handled axe OK, I'll ask: What is it about this rather poorly drawn axe makes it look like it's yew handled?
- graypegg 3y agoI oddly enough had the exact same thought! Played RuneScape as a kid => grinding woodcutting on yew trees => axe.
- fsckboy 3y agoI thought yew was springy, which made good bows, but I would think might be too much for an axe: you don't want that sproi-oi-oing. I'm not an expert, but you want a little bit of spring so your wrists don't absorb all the shock, but you don't want a whiplash backlash.
- berkes 3y agoYou won't get the sproi-oi-oing on a rod with the thickness of an axe-handle. Some "bong", which is what you want: rather than the energy dissipating through your wrists and elbows into your back and skull, it gets absorbed by the handle, and "boinged" back into the axe-head. A good yew (or carbonfibre) handle is a back- and joint-saver. I owe a few really good axes (swedish make, irony?¹) and one very bad one (chinese). The bad one has some poor and way too stiff wood. Not only does it break on mis-hits, much easier, it makes a difference on the amount of pain I feel after a day of chopping (I am a mere amateur, so muscle and back will hurt) ¹ https://www.gransforsbruk.com/en/butik/products/splitting-axes-en/ https://www.gransforsbruk.com/en/butik/products/splitting-ax...
- jon889 3y agoIt’s questions like these that made StackExchange worth visiting and browsing. When they decided to be super strict about being on topic it made the quality of the sites go downhill a lot. Now there is much less reason for experts to hang out on the sites and while there provide answers to new questions.
- jimhefferon 3y agoI'll note though that it is locked. Anytime I find something super interesting in a SE forum, it has been declared off-topic.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- scoot 3y agoPast submissions: (https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/395382/which-word-begins-with-y-and-looks-like-an-axe-in-this-picture https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/395382/which-wor...) 615 points|Gigablah|7 years ago|158 comments (https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/395382/which-word-begins-with-y-and-looks-like-an-axe-in-this-picture https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/395382/which-wor...) 179 points|flexagoon|1 hour ago|53 comments (https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/395382/which-word-begins-with-y-and-looks-like-an-axe-in-this-picture https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/395382/which-wor...) 56 points|colinprince|4 years ago|4 comments (https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/395382/which-word-begins-with-y-and-looks-like-an-axe-in-this-picture https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/395382/which-wor...) 3 points|kent1|7 years ago|0 comments (https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/395382/which-word-begins-with-y-and-looks-like-an-axe-in-this-picture https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/395382/which-wor...) 3 points|vermilingua|7 years ago|0 comments HN really should surface these by default.
- iefbr14 3y agoIts not a Y but an X if you combine the stick of the axe with the letter Y.
- mewpmewp2 3y agoIt probably was an I, before the axe was used on it.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- robocat 3y agoA wonderful example of the human propensity to "hallucinate" meaning starting from a random connection (there's an undoin uncommon specific word for that - also noticeable in children and psych). There is a smoking gun in one of the later comments: https://i.stack.imgur.com/bDRX5m.jpg https://i.stack.imgur.com/bDRX5m.jpg
- raldi 3y agoWhat about that image is a smoking gun?
- shermantanktop 3y agoIf the axe head is a gun, then the yellow handle is smoke. Just turn the image sideways and squint. Trust me, after a while you will see it.
- lovegrenoble 3y agoHave no idea
- karlzt 3y agoThis submission reminds me of this one: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37359193 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37359193 The Mystery of the Bloomfield Bridge (1028 points | 4 months ago | 270 comments) Investigating thoroughly about something that doesn't fucking matter.
- johnea 3y ago[flagged]
- karmakaze 3y ago"Yaks"
- senjin 3y agoUltimate nerd snipe
- tropsis 3y agoCould it be a word play? Axe -> Axis -> Y
- sigzero 3y agoSwedish yxa is English axe?
- CRConrad 3y agoYup.
- guhcampos 3y agoOh yeah, that answer is incredible. Makes me think of the "Obama Harry Potter Sonic Backpack". Don't worry thought, it can't hurt you in your nightmares.
- plaidfuji 3y agoAnybody who has bought children’s toys on Amazon before would immediately think, “oh, it’s because it’s a knockoff made in China, this is not worth further investigation”. And they would be right.
- gwbas1c 3y agoMy kids had an alphabet/animal book where each page had an an [Adjective] [Animal] pattern: "Breakdancing Bear," "Rollerskating Rabbit." "X" was a problem. They ended up saying "Fox in sox."
- userbinator 3y agoXenial Xerus
- leelin 3y agoI saw "YOLK", as in, a weirdly drawn cracked egg with the yolk pouring out downward and to the left. Of course, after reading through I'm convinced enough of the mainstream conclusion.
- Tao3300 3y ago> The close votes are misguided. The question is about English. That the most likely answer is a Swedish word does not change the fact that the question is about English. FFS. Wherever people can put their own words on someone else's website, you'll find this guy.
- phpnode 3y agoI would bet that the Chinese manufacturer that cloned the design never had one of the original balls in their possession in the first place. They probably saw photos of the ball online, copied the design as closely as possible and googled some clipart to fill in the letters that weren't visible in the photos. That clipart was Swedish, maybe by coincidence but probably intentionally.
- xxs 3y agoPretty much. Although the toys for young kids (at least in the EU) are quite regulated, including the plastics that can be used. Other than that, I'd have immediately considered a mistake - it's designed for kids, it should be obvious. No need for extensive research or a question on the interwebs.
- gweinberg 3y agoIt's not a really really badly drawn ax with a weird wavy yellow handle, it's yellow paint coming out of a paint pot. The reason the "ax" looks nothing at all like an ax is that it isn't supposed to be an ax.
- kalleboo 3y agoThis image comes up in a google image search for the Chinese characters for "Axe" https://i.stack.imgur.com/Lvi0V.jpg https://i.stack.imgur.com/Lvi0V.jpg
- ShamelessC 3y agoThere’s another answer suggesting this if you scroll down on the source link. I personally disagree though.
- EdwardDiego 3y agoWeirdest damn paint pot I've seen.
- anon7864556 3y agoAre you kidding? The curved handle axe is a thing: https://duckduckgo.com/?q=curved+handle+axe&iar=images&iax=images&ia=images https://duckduckgo.com/?q=curved+handle+axe&iar=images&iax=i...
- iJohnDoe 3y agoI would accept this as an answer. More like an ink container you dip a quill in. Yellow Ink.
- marzetti 3y agoThe term 'paint pot' is perhaps confusing, the drawing represents the end of a 'tube of paint' out of which yellow paint has been squeezed. The 'y' word is indeed 'yellow'.
- throwaway167 3y agoThe widespread manufacture of low price goods in China had been at full steam for over a decade, closer to two, by 2005 the date of first manufacture of the ball. And the manufacturer couldn't find the original designers' details. And laid no claim to copyright (which seems strange). Perhaps it was the case of a knockoff of a knockoff of a knockoff. A CAD file from the 1990s bumping around commodity manufactures via QQ and USB sticks, the design adapted the next order of 10,000 items by any one of a multitude of small commodities producers. Having sourced during that time to now, I'd fully believe it.
- jsf01 3y agoThese theories are fun. My first instinct was that maybe it’s for “yeoman”. But that’s not the most kid-friendly or likely word to appear on a ball. “Yellow” seems a lot more plausible, and the spray paint can idea is especially clever.
- mtlmtlmtlmtl 3y agoWonderful read. Silly suggestion: Could it be Y-axis?
- thedaly 3y agoThis is one of those posts that reminds me why I love this site so much.
- sammy2255 3y agoYxa
- zeroonetwothree 3y agoIsn’t there an obvious answer that the y means “yellow” and refers to the color of the axe?
- gweinberg 3y agoYes. Except there is no axe.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- mikepalmer 3y agoWhy did no one guess "yurt" (with smoke coming out the chimney)? Pictures of yurts here, first one with a chimney: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yurt https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yurt
- mikepalmer 3y agoHere's one from the inside with a wood stove, thanks airbnb: https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/17261315?adults=1&children=0&infants=0&check_in=2024-01-21&check_out=2024-01-26&source_impression_id=p3_1705545525_OJc9NmRrrebzrrQG&previous_page_section_name=1000&federated_search_id=fc772d88-86df-4179-8e29-bd2bae6334c0 https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/17261315?adults=1&children=0&in...
- krapp 3y agoIt isn't a yurt. It doesn't look even remotely like a yurt, even a yurt with a chimney. It's obviously meant to be an axe. It has a clearly depicted edge and the 'smoke' would need to be be coming out of the side at a really weird angle. It doesn't even have a door.
- mikepalmer 3y ago100% yurt. Yurts in cold climates is a thing. Sometimes they just have a smoke hole in the roof instead of a chimney. All the pictures are at weird angles, they're printed on a ball! :-) https://www.google.com/search?q=yurt+smoke&sca_esv=599339112&tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=1137&bih=1026&ei=4pCoZbnUIqfg0PEPtsiMgA4&iflsig=ANes7DEAAAAAZaie8j5C1I9q7FS1cZA5oZfV7VoK-rCg&ved=0ahUKEwi5zZTm9eWDAxUnMDQIHTYkA-AQ4dUDCA8&uact=5&oq=yurt+smoke&gs_lp=EgNpbWciCnl1cnQgc21va2VI-A9Q3wRY6A5wAngAkAEAmAGRAqABxQuqAQU0LjUuMrgBA8gBAPgBAYoCC2d3cy13aXotaW1nqAIAwgIIEAAYgAQYsQPCAgUQABiABMICBhAAGAgYHsICBxAAGIAEGBg&sclient=img https://www.google.com/search?q=yurt+smoke&sca_esv=599339112...
- krapp 3y agoThe geometry of the ball isn't relevant - the "smoke" as depicted is going out of the side of the "yurt" at a right angle and continuing in that direction. That's not how smoke works. And the "yurt" itself is clearly depicted as a wedge. With the "smoke" attached to it as a cylinder. If it's supposed to be a yurt, one has to ask why someone went through obvious effort to make a yurt look as much like an axe as possible.
- glandium 3y agoOf course, it's a yak shaving tool!
- sli 3y agoThe "Yakety Axe" suggestion at the end got a cackle out of me. Excellent collaboration and writeup.
- Francesca12 3y ago[flagged]
- battles 3y agoWow. I've never seen someone so viciously nerd sniped in my life.
- geof_hoffman 3y agoI love that this is the on the top of Hacker News.....
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- HeavyStorm 3y agoHad to be from a fellow Brazilian!
- kazinator 3y agoI'm with the hypothesis Y stands for yuè (钺).
- kelnos 3y agoAfter reading that lengthy, well-researched answer, I felt a bit deflated when I saw another answer lower down, that seems pretty plausible given that the ball in question a knock-off created by a Chinese company: > 鉞 is yuè in pinyin, a romanization of Chinese. This translates to ax.[0] We'll probably never know if the origin is yxa or 鉞... or even something entirely different, sadly. [0] https://english.stackexchange.com/a/395521 https://english.stackexchange.com/a/395521
- WiSaGaN 3y agoThe character '鉞' is not commonly used in modern Chinese. I would seriously doubt that anyone teaching Chinese would use this word to illustrate the letter 'Y' in English or Pinyin, especially to toddlers. There are plenty of child-friendly words starting with 'Y' that could be used instead.
- thaumasiotes 3y agoWell, more to the point, someone teaching Chinese would be unlikely to think that illustrating a particular letter was a concept that made any sense. Pinyin is a syllabic system, not an alphabetic system. For example, the letter Y in the syllable "yue" is notionally silent -- making it an especially terrible choice of something to illustrate! -- and "yue" could appear in the same row of a pinyin table as "wu", since they both start with the same consonant (or, more accurately, neither of them starts with a consonant at all). But Y in "yang" is not silent; it represents the same sound you'd expect if you were familiar with English. By the same token, "i" represents a very different vowel in "shi" than it does in "ni". And interestingly enough, although "ni" rhymes with "xi" and doesn't rhyme with "shi", the traditional analysis says that "xi" and "shi" use the same vowel (again, it's supposed to be a lack of a vowel, not a vowel that exists) while "ni" is doing something that is somehow different. Modern analysis would disagree with the traditional claim about vowels, but can support the idea that "yue" and "wu" both begin with a zero onset.
- yuters 3y agoThis reminds me of a wood board alphabet puzzle that was gifted to my kid which was made to both work in English and French. Every letter from B to Z were easy to guess. However the letter A was the drawing of a little girl playing in a puddle... We figured out it might stand for Anorak: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parka https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parka
- dang 3y agoRelated: Which word begins with “y” and looks like an axe in this picture? - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24382164 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24382164 - Sept 2020 (2 comments) Which word begins with “y” and looks like an axe in this picture? (2017) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22685058 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22685058 - March 2020 (4 comments) “Which word begins with “y” and looks like an axe in this picture?” - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14670306 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14670306 - June 2017 (158 comments)
- CRConrad 3y agoAh, that explains why I thought I'd seen this before.
- cws 3y agoI really thought it was going to be something about a “Y axis” or “Y Axes”
- fortran77 3y agoTypical stackexchange! The question is marked "off-topic"
- stewpy 3y ago"Yule" - is the Germanic word for the Christmas period, and there are "Yule" logs. So it could be a misinterpretation of this?
- the_black_hand 3y agoThe guy from Taken wrote the answer