Stereo/Torpedo #Etymology

What’s the connection between your stereo system and a torpedo? Etymology! Torpedo actually originally referred to an electric ray fish which stuns its prey with a jolt of electricity. The explosive device torpedo, originally a floating timed mine before the self-propelled version was created, was named after the fish. So in Latin torpedo referred to the fish, from Latin torpere “to be numb” because of that stunning effect, ultimately from the Proto-Indo-European root *ster- “stiff”, which also came into Greek as stereos “solid”. When 19th century scientist and inventor Charles Wheatstone invented a device that allowed a viewer to see a picture in 3D he called it a stereoscope because the flat image appeared to be solid, and by analogy to stereoscopic the word stereophonic was coined to refer to sound that appeared to come in 3D, and a system that could produce this kind of sound was eventually shortened to stereo. The means of recording stereophonic sound was invented by physicist Harvey Fletcher, sometimes referred to as the “father of stereophonic sound”, who worked at the famed Bell Labs, where coincidentally radio guided torpedoes were developed during WWII, though they could be radio jammed, until actress Hedy Lamarr co-invented technology to prevent this, which would later form the basis of wifi technology. You can now stream your stereo music on your wifi-enabled device of choice.