# Common but incorrect names of things
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/common-but-incorrect-names-of-things/948466
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [August 11, 2021, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/common-but-incorrect-names-of-things/948466 "2021-08-11T18:21:05Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)
#### Post date: [August 11, 2021, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/common-but-incorrect-names-of-things/948466/1 "2021-08-11T18:21:05Z")
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](https://www.phoenixpublicspeaking.com/difference-between-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_.
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### Author:  [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)
#### Post date: [August 11, 2021, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/common-but-incorrect-names-of-things/948466/2 "2021-08-11T18:36:35Z")
_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.
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### Author:  [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)
#### Post date: [August 11, 2021, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/common-but-incorrect-names-of-things/948466/3 "2021-08-11T19:15:37Z")
The woman you’ve called “Mom” these past 58 years? She actually prefers “Mother”.
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### Author:  [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)
#### Post date: [August 11, 2021, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/common-but-incorrect-names-of-things/948466/4 "2021-08-11T20:19:22Z")
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.
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### Author:  [@kk\_fusion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kk_fusion)
#### Post date: [August 11, 2021, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/common-but-incorrect-names-of-things/948466/5 "2021-08-11T20:28:13Z")
Woodworms are actually beetle larvae.
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### Author:  [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)
#### Post date: [August 11, 2021, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/common-but-incorrect-names-of-things/948466/6 "2021-08-11T20:43:57Z")
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._
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### Author:  [@AlsoNamedBort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AlsoNamedBort)
#### Post date: [August 11, 2021, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/common-but-incorrect-names-of-things/948466/7 "2021-08-11T20:46:46Z")
> [@What\_Exit](#):
>
> The picture on your PC’s or Laptop’s desktop screen is **not the Screensaver** , it is the Background Image.
Do people really call it a screensaver? Are screensavers even a thing anymore? It’s usually called the wallpaper.
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### Author:  [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)
#### Post date: [August 11, 2021, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/common-but-incorrect-names-of-things/948466/8 "2021-08-11T21:00:02Z")
I still hear it and find it funny when I do.
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### Author:  [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)
#### Post date: [August 12, 2021, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/common-but-incorrect-names-of-things/948466/9 "2021-08-12T02:00:48Z")
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.
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### Author:  [@the\_bing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/the_bing)
#### Post date: [August 12, 2021, 7:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/common-but-incorrect-names-of-things/948466/10 "2021-08-12T07:31:33Z")
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?)
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### Author:  [@madsircool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madsircool)
#### Post date: [August 12, 2021, 8:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/common-but-incorrect-names-of-things/948466/11 "2021-08-12T08:04:40Z")
The use of vagina when people mean vulva.
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### Author:  [@Folacin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Folacin)
#### Post date: [August 12, 2021, 12:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/common-but-incorrect-names-of-things/948466/12 "2021-08-12T12:27:43Z")
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.](https://slate.com/technology/2021/08/vagina-vulva-anatomy-sex-definitions.html)
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### Author:  [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)
#### Post date: [August 12, 2021, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/common-but-incorrect-names-of-things/948466/13 "2021-08-12T12:31:13Z")
> [@the\_bing](#):
>
> It is not a “clicker”.
No, the proper pronunciation is “clickah”.
-Telemark, proud Masshole
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### Author:  [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)
#### Post date: [August 12, 2021, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/common-but-incorrect-names-of-things/948466/14 "2021-08-12T17:06:44Z")
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?
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### Author:  [@Didi44](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Didi44)
#### Post date: [August 12, 2021, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/common-but-incorrect-names-of-things/948466/15 "2021-08-12T17:16:18Z")
The correct name is: “Where is that damn THING!”
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### Author:  [@Max\_S](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_S)
#### Post date: [August 12, 2021, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/common-but-incorrect-names-of-things/948466/16 "2021-08-12T17:19:39Z")
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
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### Author:  [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)
#### Post date: [August 12, 2021, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/common-but-incorrect-names-of-things/948466/17 "2021-08-12T17:21:35Z")
Yes, but I know it as a “quarrel.”
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### Author:  [@Max\_S](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_S)
#### Post date: [August 12, 2021, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/common-but-incorrect-names-of-things/948466/18 "2021-08-12T17:24:07Z")
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
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### Author:  [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)
#### Post date: [August 12, 2021, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/common-but-incorrect-names-of-things/948466/19 "2021-08-12T17:25:47Z")
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.
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### Author:  [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)
#### Post date: [August 12, 2021, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/common-but-incorrect-names-of-things/948466/20 "2021-08-12T17:28:38Z")
> [@susan](#):
>
> Yes, but I know it as a “quarrel.”
More of a quarrel _ **stopper** _, amirite?
Sorry.
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