Pluto
What does the Walt Disney cartoon dog Pluto have in common with plutocrats and plutocracy?
The word pluto has its origins in Latin ploutos (wealth, riches) and the Proto-Indo-European root pleu (to flow). The Latin god Pluto and the Greek god Plouton are each a god of wealth; perhaps overflowing wealth.
The word plutocracy, from the 1650s, meaning government by the wealthy or a class ruling by virtue of wealth, is from Greek ploutokratia (rule or power of the wealthy or of wealth). The term pluto-democracy, from 1895, refers to plutocracy masquerading as democracy.
In 1930, an American astronomer, Clyde W. Tombaugh, discovered what he thought at the time was a planet. He named it Pluto.
The Walt Disney cartoon dog Pluto first appeared in 1931.
The metallic element plutonium was discovered in 1941and named in 1942. Why plutonium? Because, as its discoverers noted, “it follows neptunium in the periodic table of elements as Pluto followed Neptune in the solar system” (Online Etymological Dictionary).
So, why was the cartoon dog named Pluto? “Some Disney animators reportedly believed that Disney chose the name Pluto to capitalize on the then-newly-named ninth planet Pluto. However, animation historian John Canemaker states that Disney chose the name simply because he once had a dog named Pluto” (Wikipedia). But no one really knows for sure.
But thinking of the cartoon dog Pluto and plutocratic forms of government, I can’t help but thinking there must be a metaphor in there somewhere!
Reference: Online Etymological Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pluto_(Disney)
The word pluto has its origins in Latin ploutos (wealth, riches) and the Proto-Indo-European root pleu (to flow). The Latin god Pluto and the Greek god Plouton are each a god of wealth; perhaps overflowing wealth.
The word plutocracy, from the 1650s, meaning government by the wealthy or a class ruling by virtue of wealth, is from Greek ploutokratia (rule or power of the wealthy or of wealth). The term pluto-democracy, from 1895, refers to plutocracy masquerading as democracy.
In 1930, an American astronomer, Clyde W. Tombaugh, discovered what he thought at the time was a planet. He named it Pluto.
The Walt Disney cartoon dog Pluto first appeared in 1931.
The metallic element plutonium was discovered in 1941and named in 1942. Why plutonium? Because, as its discoverers noted, “it follows neptunium in the periodic table of elements as Pluto followed Neptune in the solar system” (Online Etymological Dictionary).
So, why was the cartoon dog named Pluto? “Some Disney animators reportedly believed that Disney chose the name Pluto to capitalize on the then-newly-named ninth planet Pluto. However, animation historian John Canemaker states that Disney chose the name simply because he once had a dog named Pluto” (Wikipedia). But no one really knows for sure.
But thinking of the cartoon dog Pluto and plutocratic forms of government, I can’t help but thinking there must be a metaphor in there somewhere!
Reference: Online Etymological Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pluto_(Disney)
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