See definition 3. Picadilly Circus is far from the only example of this usage.
As I recall, it is more alke two triangles, joined at the points, like an hourglass.
Guinea pig? Not a pig, nor is it from Guinea.
Mongoose? Not a goose. Bonus points for using polygoose as the plural.
Telephone dial? But then, this is just a holdover term from when they actually were actual DIALS.
However, Virginia Slims are actually slim, and made in Virginia.
Neither the New York Jets nor the New York Giants play in New York.
And bald eagles are covered with feathers.
Not any more he doesn’t. His neighborhood got yuppified and his old house is now a wine bar serving sandwiches with arugula and sun dried tomatoes, while he moved his family out to Chingford where he spends his days in a mock Tudor McMansion tutting over stories in the Daily Mail about immigration.
Earned Income Credit is not earned, nor is it Income, nor is it a Credit. (well, it’s sort of a credit, but it’s actually a payment as it’s refundable).
Canadian Bacon. Not made in Canada, not particulary Canadian, and rarely made from Canadians.
Duckster- I despise that joke, as too many use it as an example of a oxymoron, while it is NOT a oxymoron at all. (it* was *funny- a long time ago when George Carlin used it)
Jumbo Shrimp is a sort of oxymoron, due to the double meaning of 'shrimp". Something like “civil war”.
True oxymorons include 'living dead", “new classic”, “old news”.
Cecil did answer the driveway/parkway thing.
I’ll add Jerusalem artichokes.
A titmouse is a bird.
What about the whole “light cigarettes” debacle in the US? The FDA made companies stop referring to certain cigarettes as “light” because they felt that it made a false implication that those cigarettes were safer than non-“light” cigarettes.
Compassionate Conservative ?
In American football, you don’t need to “touch” the ball “down” to score a touchdown.
Magpie has no relation to pie.
Blow job
Moral Majority
boxing rings are square
not sure, but i heard greenland/iceland should be the other way around
100 years war didn’t last 100 years
panama hats aren’t made in panama
Naked Lunch
For the list, I’ll add: Tempory insanity. I’ve known a few insane people, and I would gamble they’ve been like this all their lives. And that’s not a few number of years on an individual basis.
(deleted rest of post - caught my own error. Oops.)
I’ll just leave this here. http://www.rathergood.com/nuts
Rhode Island
Butterfly
Ear of corn
Head of lettuce
Fingernail
Hammer toes
Beefsteak tomatoes
I’m not so sure peanuts are a good example of this. They are nuts in any reasonable culinary sense, and they are legumes - so it’s not unreasonable to call them peas (the term is already legitimately applied to a ragged assortment of other legumes, so why not this one?)
“Key West” is an approximate transliteration of “Bone Island” from French, so named for bones found there, and having nothing to do with its location. At least, IIRC.