You know the piece of furniture a person stands behind when giving a talk to an audience? Most people call it a podium. But that’s not what it is. It’s a lectern. A podium is something a person stands on. Like those small platforms the Olympic medalists stand on.
Your semiautomatic handgun has a 10 round clip? No it doesn’t. It has a 10 round magazine. Your handgun doesn’t accept clips. And while we’re at it, the magazine doesn’t hold “bullets.” It holds cartridges or rounds.
These are minor too.
Aircraft Carriers, Destroyers, Cruisers, Frigates, LHDs and etc. are not Battleships. They are War Ships, but not Battleships.
The picture on your PC’s or Laptop’s desktop screen is not the Screensaver, it is the Background Image.
The woman you’ve called “Mom” these past 58 years? She actually prefers “Mother”.
The arrow you move around with your mouse is not a cursor, it’s a pointer. A cursor is used to mark your position in a text editor.
Woodworms are actually beetle larvae.
A woodworm is a woodworm though. That is the correct name. That they’re not a worm but a beetle larvae is good to know though.
Says the person that has worked on Wooden Boats for 30 years.
Do people really call it a screensaver? Are screensavers even a thing anymore? It’s usually called the wallpaper.
I still hear it and find it funny when I do.
Physicians other than pathologists commonly refer to a type of benign skin lesion as a sebaceous cyst.
This is wrong. Such lesions do not involve sebaceous glands and are properly termed epidermal inclusion cysts.
I figured you’d want to know.
*Google image searches are inadvisable.
The small electronic device used to change the TV channel without rising from a seated position?
It’s called a “remote control” (“remote” for short is acceptable).
It is not a “clicker”.
Or a “doofer”.
Or a “dooberry” (sp?)
The use of vagina when people mean vulva.
Not being an anatomist (or having either), I think a lot of times people kind of mean both? So, let’s normalize a word that covers the whole area.
No, the proper pronunciation is “clickah”.
-Telemark, proud Masshole
The thing that a crossbow shoots may look like an arrow, but it’s actually a bolt.
What about all the things that are called by their common brand names, no matter what brand they actually are- Kleenex, xerox, band-aid, kool-aid, etc. does that count for the purpose of this thread?
The correct name is: “Where is that damn THING!”
The word you are looking for is “misnomer”.
The lead in a pencil is not actually lead but graphite.
Tin foil and tin cans are usually made of aluminum these days.
~Max
Yes, but I know it as a “quarrel.”
I also found a book online,
Misnomers: A compendium of wrong names for people, things, and concepts by Larry Wennik available for Kindle (or Kindle App) on Amazon for $3.99.
A misnomer is a name or designation that’s incorrectly or inappropriately applied to a person, thing, or concept. It’s misnamed. This book contains more than 250 misnomers and related images in subjects like Animals, People, History, Geography, Plants, Foods, Products/Things, Mathematics and Science, and Miscellaneous.
~Max
But lead is the proper term for the graphite and clay mixture writing material in a pencil.
Lead has never been used as the writing material in pencils but the term arose from an ancient Roman writing implement*. Though ironically enough, I’m old enough to have had pencils painted with lead based paint.
* I can’t remember what the Romans called these.
More of a quarrel stopper, amirite?
Sorry.