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Cyanomagenta · 4350 days ago · link · · parent · post: What phrases do we often say that have a deeper meaning? (All languages)
It came surprising to me that, in many languages, there is no special term for "Why". In Chinese, "why" is "为什么". "为" means "for", and "什么" means "what". In French, "why" is "pourquoi", a combination of "pour" and "quoi" meaning "for what". We use "why" so often, and I'd never before thought that "why" can be expressed as "for what".