It’s a sign of an advanced civilization when they reserve such short words for only the most apropos definitions.
It’s a form of compression. Shortest words are used most often, or in an emergency.
Such as 0118, 999, 881, 999, 119, 725…3
192 used to be directory services but they changed it to 118, and then a bunch of copy cats used 118 as a prefix for all kinds of unofficial stuff. Plus 999 and 112 in the UK are still very iffy depending on where you are.
When I was a kid, I used to dial 911 all the time. Because all you’d get was a recording.
“The 9 1 1 emergency number is not in effect in the area where you are. If this is an actual emergency please hang up and dial your local emergency responder.”
This is coming from the people group that use “mau” as the word for cat.
Lovely castle, smells of elderberries.
Still the first scientific report, alphabetically.