# Any other commonly used terms originate from now defunct scientific theories ?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-other-commonly-used-terms-originate-from-now-defunct-scientific-theories/569115>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [January 26, 2011, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-other-commonly-used-terms-originate-from-now-defunct-scientific-theories/569115 "2011-01-26T23:32:27Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 4

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**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\
**Post date:** [January 28, 2011, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-other-commonly-used-terms-originate-from-now-defunct-scientific-theories/569115/61 "2011-01-28T20:14:48Z")

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Well, any classification system of anything will have some blurry spots around the edges, with objects that are sort of in one category and sort of in another, but the three I mentioned are pretty distinct, as such things go. Mercury, Venus, Earth, Luna, Mars, and Ceres are unambiguously rockballs; Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune are unambiguously gasballs; and Eris, Pluto, Sedna, Quaoar and the major moons of the gasballs are unambiguously iceballs. Just saying “fluid” or “solid” isn’t much help, because the subsurface oceans of Europa are very different from the molten core of the Earth, and you’d have to decide which layers count as “inside” and “outside” (is the Earth a solid crust under a fluid atmosphere, or a fluid outer core under a solid crust, or a solid inner core under a solid crust?).

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**Author:** ![suranyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)\
**Post date:** [January 28, 2011, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-other-commonly-used-terms-originate-from-now-defunct-scientific-theories/569115/62 "2011-01-28T22:31:16Z")

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Here’s a good one:

Cosmetics: From the idea that the universe (the cosmos) is perfection.

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**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\
**Post date:** [January 28, 2011, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-other-commonly-used-terms-originate-from-now-defunct-scientific-theories/569115/63 "2011-01-28T23:06:28Z")

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> [@Kimstu](#):
>
> Astrology has contributed a lot of other terms to modern metaphors as well.
> 
> If your “star is in the ascendant”, you’re experiencing good fortune: a reference to the astrological doctrine that the “ascendant” or “horoscopic point”, where the zodiac crosses the eastern horizon, makes a celestial body especially influential. (If your “ **evil** star is in the ascendant”, that’s not so good.) A lot of related expressions, such as being “born under a lucky star”, have similar origins.
> 
> If you’re at the “zenith” or the “nadir” of your fortunes, that likewise reflects the astrological associations of the directions up and down, respectively.

Don’t forget “star-crossed,” as in lovers like Romeo & Juliet.

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