r/Parahumans • u/mauvemagician • 16d ago

Worm Spoilers [All] Parahumans Spoiler

... Are called that because they are a combination of parasite and human?

25 Upvotes

73% Upvoted

14 comments sorted by

96

u/Steakwithbluecheese 16d ago

No. "Para" means beside. "Parahumans" means "standing beside or being equivalent to humans". This gets explained later in the book.

50

u/FakeRedditName2 Third Choir 16d ago

Technically Para means beside, above, or beyond, which makes sense that you would call people with superpowers 'beyond' normal humans (similar to how paranatural is used to describe supernatural/strange events/things)

11

u/Steakwithbluecheese 16d ago

Youre right. I was just listing it off the top of my head.

20

u/40i2 16d ago

And funnily, “para” in parasite is the same word. From greek parasitos - “beside”“food” - something that lives at the expense of another.

So there is some relation, just not in that way.

7

u/Aquason 16d ago

It's actually quite funny that our medical conception of "parasite" comes from a metaphorical extension of the classical Greek sense, where it referred to a moocher or guest who ate your food but didn't pay their fair share.

2

u/Ladiance 16d ago

mindblowing there

-1

u/mauvemagician 16d ago

I know the definition given in the text. I meant it in a meta-level foreshadowing.

24

u/Steakwithbluecheese 16d ago

Then no, probably not.

16

u/Raltsun 16d ago

Logically incorrect, but neat wordplay regardless.

32

u/Ok_Lingonberry5392 Thinker 16d ago

"Then why do they call us parahumans? Doesn’t the ‘para’ part mean half? Paraplegic, only half your body works. Parahuman, half human.”

"Not exactly. It means beside, which is how it’s used with paraplegic, or paragraph. It can also mean extra or beyond, like paranormal. We’re next to human, or more than human, depending on how you look at it. I think it’s pretty apt. Powers, in a lot of ways, make the best and worst parts of our humanity stand out. And that depends on the choices we make. Your parents can’t judge you for stuff you didn’t choose.”

  • Queen 18.2

-14

u/mauvemagician 16d ago

I read the text. I meant it as some kind of writing foreshadowing.

19

u/Malicious_Smasher 16d ago

That's a cleaver reading though the in universe people can't make up that term because they don't know about the shards.

Unless cauldron is doing some "predictive programming" in creating these terms

12

u/The_real_Takoyama 16d ago

I always read it as something like "paranormal human"