Semantic Similarity in Pompeii

 Reposting an anecdote I originally posted on Hacker News regarding my trip to Pompeii:

    We were walking around the city (the archeological park, that is) and I wanted to see one of those roman public bathrooms. So I googled "pompeii latrine" and got search results links for how to find the bathrooms (as in, the guest facilities). I was initially confused as to why such a clear query got me the completely wrong answer, until it hit me that bathroom and latrine are semantically similar, but not in my context.

    At least that's my headcanon, who knows. And it seems like the cool preserved latrinae were in herculanum anyway. Still, fun to think about

 Again, I have no way of knowing if this is why it happened, but I like to believe it is.

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