Homo and Mono.
Associations are remarkably sensitive. They're on duty nonstop. The moment they spot a few letters forming a concept, a word, they go into ecstasy.
Making connections for possible shades of meaning or double readings makes the work of association extremely fascinating. I think they don’t just do a job — they have a fantastic one.
In the German-speaking countries, the word “Homo” triggers a different kind of alertness than in places where English is the standard of communication. In DACH — Germany, Austria, and Switzerland — homosexuality, homeopathy, and possibly homogenised would be front-row entries.
In Canada, the word “Homo” goes straight to whole milk. Homogenised whole milk is called Homo — and not because it carries 3.25% butterfat and has been mechanically treated to distribute the fat evenly. The mechanical process is anything but pleasant. For the fat globules, that is. The whole milk is forced at high pressure through hair-thin tubes in order to smash those fat globules to pieces. The machine is called a homogeniser.
How brutal is that?
But — could I have my body homogenised too?
Right, now to the word “Mono,” which naturally points at once to Monopoly, monogamy, or mono vinyl records. Or to MSG.
MSG what?
The abbreviation stands for monosodium glutamate, but also for a particular taste in food: umami, or glutamate. So MSG is simply one of those enhancers for food that is already flavourful to begin with.
Homo and Mono — a pair?
Oh yes, strangely enough both words are quite at home in milk. Homo and Mono meet in cow’s milk, but in breast milk it’s only Mono — glutamate as a component of MSG. Because mothers have always been a touch more far-sighted, human breast milk offers six to nine times more free glutamate. Which is why that umami taste feels so familiar to us Homo sapiens — it was already in our very first meal.
And here is a somewhat curious story from the shelves of Canadian supermarkets. There, blue-and-white “HOMO MILK” cartons have stood for decades beside spice racks displaying little packets of “MSG.” Both products were, in their respective eras, denounced as suspicious, unnatural, or even dangerous. Homogenised milk was considered untrustworthy well into the 1920s. MSG is still fighting the myth of “Chinese Restaurant Syndrome.” Both prejudices have since been rehabilitated by science.
Homo and Mono are, therefore, fit for polite society.
