In before the “It’s not a ‘dark side”, it’s a ‘far side’” comments.
Well, in the album “Dark Side of the Moon”, the Moon was an allegory for Sid Barrett’s “lunacy”. So, really, that would sort of fit, for these 8 items and other FR suggestions!
It’s simple English. The English word “dark” has more than one meaning - one of which is “not illuminated.” That’s the one everyone seems to focus on when hearing the phrase, “dark side of the moon.” But that is not, and never was, the intended meaning of the phrase. The phrase goes back to the 17th century at least, and quite possibly earlier, and shortly after it was realized that the Earth is a sphere and, therefore, the moon is a sphere as well. But, somehow, we only ever see one side (which we now understand to mean that the moon is tidally locked in its orbit of Earth).
In the same timeframe that the phrase “dark side of the moon” first entered the English language the phrase “dark continent” to describe Africa also came into common usage. No one, ever, thought the sun didn’t shine on Africa - quite the opposite. What was meant by “dark continent” was “unknown continent” since - at that time - little was known about Africa. And since nothing was known about the far side of the moon, that was the meaning of the phrase “dark side of the moon” to describe the far side we didn’t know.
I completely understood this as a child. Don’t they teach stuff like this anymore?
RE: “dark side”...
One of the early British tv series Space:1999 episodes was criticized for saying “dark side” but they claimed common parlance calls it that so the astronauts would, too. Sort of like Mercury moving retrograde instead of saying Mercury’s apparent retrograde movement. Or the Sun is rising and setting implying Earth stands still. Or US Income Tax instead of filthy theft of our money by the corrupt government. (That’s mine at the end.)