translatable pun

[gusl]

"Why are profile pictures almost always frontal?"

This pun works in at least 6 languages (EN, ES, HU, NL, PT, SE). Thanks, Facebook friends!
How much of a coincidence is this?

Does the wide extent of this double meaning reflect a universal metaphor, or merely the history of the word "profile" as it spread to all these languages?

I can imagine two ways in which two languages come to share two meanings of single word without new languages branching off (both involve language contact, i.e. bilinguals):
* both meanings cross to the new language (possibly independently)
* the second meaning is derived from the first by metaphor; the metaphor crosses to the new language.

Comments

[http://users.livejournal.com/_wirehead_/]

this got me really wondering when and how it went from meaning silhouette (which i'm guessing was the first meaning) to biography. or perhaps it was the other way around...

(btw it does NOT work in Japanese, which doesn't really surprise me.)

[gustavolacerda.livejournal.com]

In my mind:
"silhouette" = "shadow" (perhaps also "outline").
"profile" = "sideways view, esp. of a head"

I'm biased by Portuguese "silhueta", "perfil".

In Santa Fe, I took pictures of a few people's profile shadows from a projector, and everybody is easily identifiable. It would be fun to make a comic using this technique.

[glapaloopscap.livejournal.com]

I think you're right about the distinction between profile and silhouette. Well... a silhouette is what you get when someone or something is backlit so harshly that they appear as a flat black cutout shape against the background.

Here's an expression that is the same metaphor in a lot of languages:
tip of the tongue

[http://users.livejournal.com/_wirehead_/]

the internet seems to think both definitions work: http://www.answers.com/topic/silhouette

that sounds like an interesting project... i wonder if recognition of profiles is related to faceblindness, or if it uses a different part of the brain? (i.e. i wonder if *i* would have the same difficulty recognizing people's silhouettes as i do recognizing faces)

[gustavolacerda.livejournal.com]

do you have prosopagnosia?

[http://users.livejournal.com/_wirehead_/]

well, i don't know if it's technically true, because i *do* recognize people eventually. but to some extent, yeah. i have a hard time recognizing people until i've interacted with them for a longer amount of time than just an introduction, and with certain people it can take a few weeks of seeing them on a daily basis before they look familiar to me -- and even then, i might not be able to pick them out of a crowd. and sometimes when people change something superficial about themselves (e.g. haircut, growing a beard), i don't recognize them. i think this is the root of a lot of my social anxiety.

[gustavolacerda.livejournal.com]

you should be able to find some online tests. [insert disclaimer about the diagnostic value of Internet tests]

[http://users.livejournal.com/_wirehead_/]

yeah, i think i've done that... or at least, i've failed horribly at that sort of game in campus psych tests. like i said, not as severe as some people, but it's definitely a problem. most of what i've read about it rings true for me, including odd things like not being able to tell celebrities apart and often getting characters mixed up in TV shows and movies (which might be one reason i don't really like watching movies). that part of my brain may not be totally disabled, but it's definitely lower-functioning than average.

[staskikotx.livejournal.com]

I am russian and I did not get this pun.

[gustavolacerda.livejournal.com]

Profile means two things:
* a file about a person, containing biographical information (name, DOB, etc)
* sideways view, esp. of a head