# Common parlance be damned! What words don't mean what you think? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 16, 2005, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/common-parlance-be-damned-what-words-dont-mean-what-you-think/294844 "2005-03-16T17:39:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Sevastopol](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cdc98d/32.png) [@Sevastopol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sevastopol)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2005, 12:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/common-parlance-be-damned-what-words-dont-mean-what-you-think/294844/41 "2005-03-17T12:11:11Z")
> [@zagloba](#): > > What’s the opposite of “pharmacy?” A supplier of poisons. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2005, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/common-parlance-be-damned-what-words-dont-mean-what-you-think/294844/42 "2005-03-17T14:36:29Z")
> [@Gorsnak](#): > > I’ve come to use “lunch” and “supper” in order to avoid ambiguity, since different people in my life use “dinner” in different ways. That’s been my solution to this problem as well. Interesting that the dinner-as-midday-meal usage is the same in rural Saskatchewan as among old Southerners. I suspect it’s a rural thing. Used to be, on farms, that the mid-day meal was the big meal of the day. Everyone would get up before dawn, have a hearty breakfast, work until mid-day, have a big meal, relax during the heat of day, and then go back to work when things cooled off a bit, just having a small meal for supper at the end of the day (often leftovers from dinner). I wonder which is the older connotation for “dinner”? The mid-day meal connotation or the evening meal connotation? ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2005, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/common-parlance-be-damned-what-words-dont-mean-what-you-think/294844/43 "2005-03-17T14:44:03Z")
I was always under the impression that the original meaning of “dinner” was the largest meal of the day, no matter when it was taken. In the court of Henry VIII, the king and his court took dinner in the afternoon, but the servants took dinner in the morning, or somethign like that. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2005, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/common-parlance-be-damned-what-words-dont-mean-what-you-think/294844/44 "2005-03-17T14:53:08Z")
> [@Ethilrist](#): > > I _know_ that, but we call it _corn._ Only in North America. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2005, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/common-parlance-be-damned-what-words-dont-mean-what-you-think/294844/45 "2005-03-17T15:11:04Z")
Well now _this_ is interesting. From [here](http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=dinner): > [@](#): > > Eating foods such as pizza and ice cream for breakfast may be justified etymologically. In Middle English dinner meant “breakfast,” as did the Old French word disner, or diner, which was the source of our word. \*_The Old French word came from the Vulgar Latin word disinre, meaning “to break one’s fast; that is, to eat one’s first meal,” a notion also contained in our word breakfast._ The Vulgar Latin word was derived from an earlier word, \*disiinre, the Latin elements of which are dis-, denoting reversal, and iinium, “fast.” Middle English diner not only meant “breakfast” but, echoing usage of the Old French word diner, more commonly meant “the first big meal of the day, usually eaten between 9 A.M. and noon.” Customs change, however, and over the years we have let the chief meal become the last meal of the day, by which time we have broken our fast more than once. ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2005, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/common-parlance-be-damned-what-words-dont-mean-what-you-think/294844/46 "2005-03-17T15:21:35Z")
> [@Scott\_plaid](#): > > What words don’t mean what you think? “Inconceivable!” ---
**Author:** ![Scott\_Plaid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/258eb7/32.png) [@Scott\_Plaid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scott_Plaid)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2005, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/common-parlance-be-damned-what-words-dont-mean-what-you-think/294844/47 "2005-03-17T15:28:10Z")
You keep using that word. I do not think you know wha– I mean, it originally mean, that a women could not conceive children. > **[conceive | Origin and meaning of conceive by Online Etymology Dictionary](https://www.etymonline.com/word/conceive)** > > CONCEIVE Meaning: "take (seed) into the womb, become pregnant," from stem of Old French conceveir (Modern French… See definitions of conceive. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2005, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/common-parlance-be-damned-what-words-dont-mean-what-you-think/294844/48 "2005-03-17T15:42:53Z")
“Literally” no longer seems to mean what it literally means. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2005, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/common-parlance-be-damned-what-words-dont-mean-what-you-think/294844/49 "2005-03-17T15:43:02Z")
> [@Scott\_plaid](#): > > Not merely a simple bundle of sticks, no, but a bundle of rods round an axe… > Very phallic \*\*My \*\* students know. I like to do little digressions like that when appropriate in the lecture. Since we just covered the rise of Fascist Italy… 😃 ---
**Author:** ![erislover](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/71e660/32.png) [@erislover](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/erislover)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2005, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/common-parlance-be-damned-what-words-dont-mean-what-you-think/294844/50 "2005-03-17T16:07:40Z")
> [@acsenray](#): > > “Literally” no longer seems to mean what it literally means. It’s a veritable nightmare. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2005, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/common-parlance-be-damned-what-words-dont-mean-what-you-think/294844/51 "2005-03-17T16:08:27Z")
> [@matt](#): > > Words that are their own opposites are cool. **Sanction** is another one - sanction can mean **forbid** or **permit** depending on context. **Fast** can mean both “rapidly moving” and “unmovable.” “Enormity” originally meant “nonstandardness” or “irregularness.” It quickly changed to mean “evilness.” Currently, it’s changing to mean “largeness.” “Enormous” was similar: its first meaning was “not normal,” but it changed to mean “very large.” “Dumb” meant “unable to speak”; now it means “stupid.” “Actor” started as “plaintiff” in a legal case, it later became “someone who performs on stage.” ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2005, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/common-parlance-be-damned-what-words-dont-mean-what-you-think/294844/52 "2005-03-17T17:55:39Z")
> [@PastAllReason](#): > > I find “cleave” interesting, and years ago, had the “huh?” reaction when I paid attention to the words in a wedding ceremony when it talked about the husband and wife cleaving together. Interesting that as an intransitive verb [cleave]([http://www.bartleby.com/61/90/C0399000.html](http://www.bartleby.com/61/90/C0399000.html)) means to cling together, but as a transitive verb [cleave](http://www.bartleby.com/61/90/C0399000.html) means to split apart. So that cleaving to one’s spouse is something quite different to cleaving one’s spouse. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2005, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/common-parlance-be-damned-what-words-dont-mean-what-you-think/294844/53 "2005-03-17T20:38:43Z")
> [@zagloba](#): > > What’s the opposite of “pharmacy?” In my neighborhood, a pawnshop. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2005, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/common-parlance-be-damned-what-words-dont-mean-what-you-think/294844/54 "2005-03-18T00:27:08Z")
> [@matt](#): > > Words that are their own opposites are cool. **Sanction** is another one - sanction can mean **forbid** or **permit** depending on context. Of course, they’re not quite exact opposites. To sanction someone is to punish them for doing what was already forbidden; to sanction an act is to permit it. Still, they are almost opposite, and it’s an interesting example. The two words “cleave” are close, but not exactly the same. Cleave meaning to split has an irregular past tense and participle–cleft/cleft \*or \*cloven. With the other meaning, it’s regular. ---
**Author:** ![Scott\_Plaid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/258eb7/32.png) [@Scott\_Plaid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scott_Plaid)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2005, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/common-parlance-be-damned-what-words-dont-mean-what-you-think/294844/55 "2005-03-18T03:11:10Z")
I was read some book, (I don’t want to give the title, for fear of sounding pretentious) In it, The phrase “(someone’s) famous pasteries” is used, and in the footnotes, it explains that famous is used in the sense of supposedly, or according to rumor. ---
**Author:** ![Civil\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d78d45/32.png) [@Civil\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Civil_Guy)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2005, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/common-parlance-be-damned-what-words-dont-mean-what-you-think/294844/56 "2005-03-18T04:09:38Z")
As mentioned above, there are a few words that are their own seeming opposites. If I had seen this thread sooner, I would have been fast to respond. As it was, work held me fast to my desk. (Well, no, I’ve never been able to work this into a conversation before. Anyhow, some days, I’ve got a pretty fast response. Other day’s, my responses are just half-fast.) (Say that last one more quickly. Bah-dump-bump.) I bet I can get some people to wince just by saying that this is one of the most unique discussions I’ve seen. …Used to be, unique meant “one of a kind,” with none of this “most” stuff allowed alongside. ---
**Author:** ![Civil\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d78d45/32.png) [@Civil\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Civil_Guy)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2005, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/common-parlance-be-damned-what-words-dont-mean-what-you-think/294844/57 "2005-03-18T04:12:38Z")
Of course, “fast” has already been covered. I really should read the rest of the thread before responding. Half-fast, indeed. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/common-parlance-be-damned-what-words-dont-mean-what-you-think/294844.md?page=2)