Reminds me of how orthogonally polarized waves can inhabit the same bit of space without interfering with each other (and can be cleanly separated later using 2 polarized filters at 90 degrees).

"After my one course in linear algebra, I knew eigenvectors and eigenvalues like the back of my head. If your instructor was anything like mine, you recall solving problems involving eigendoohickeys, but you never really understood them."

-- Jonathan Richard Shewchuk, from An Introduction to the Conjugate Gradient Method Without the Agonizing Pain

Eigenvector is actually a Denglish word (half German, half English), eigen is the German part, vector the English part.