Etymology fun: zen (Japanese) comes from ch’an (Chinese) which comes from dhyāna (Sanskrit) which all translate to “meditation” in English. If you go further back in time you get to the PIE root dheie which refers to noticing (distinct from seeing). If you then proceed forward in etymological history down the English line this root gives us théa, meaning view. From here we get theōrós, a viewer, which births theōria, a viewing, which ultimately gives us theory.

While all of this is wildly speculative, it’s fun to imagine the developments that necessitated making such distinctions: seeing vs. noticing, a viewer vs. a viewing, a viewing vs. a theory. It’s also revealing that Eastern cultures evolved noticing into meditating and the West evolved noticing into theorizing.