دمع

so i made this flash card for myself a little while ago. on one side it says دمع and on the other it says "tear". i was flipping through a stack of flash cards this morning on the train and came across it for the first time in a while, didn't remember the word and put it in my pile of cards to re-memorize.

the problem is that i'm not sure if دمع means "tear" as in when you're crying (e.g. to shed a tear) or whether it means "tear" like a rip (e.g. a tear in the cover of a book). usually when i have these problems i turn to hans (which i don't have with me today) or google.

but google isn't helpful. the fourth search result is a dictionary definition that suggests it might be a tear from crying, but it isn't completely clear. meanwhile the fifth result seems to be bilingual instructions that uses the word "tear" in the sense of ripping something: "Tear apart at the corner..." then the seventh search result seems to be a poem that uses the phrase دمع العين ("tear of the eye")

could it be that in arabic the word دمع means "tear" in both senses of the english word? that just seems unlikely to me. anyone out there know the answer?

and in other news, while writing this post i struggled to come up with the english word for two different words that sound the same but mean different things. it's homonym (or homophone). the word reminded me of elementary school when, at one point, we had to learn the words/concept of homonym, synonym, antonym, etc. it also struck me that, at least with respect to "homonym", before today i probably have not used that word since elementary school. it just doesn't come up. so why did my teachers spend so much time in elementary school teaching me a word like "homonym" that i may well never encounter again in my entire life?

i'm usually one of those people who believes in learning for its own sake, but surely there is a better word than "homonym" to force on 7 year olds.