# Totally wrong stuff you believed to an embarrassingly advanced age **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 18, 2007, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-wrong-stuff-you-believed-to-an-embarrassingly-advanced-age/408477 "2007-06-18T16:42:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 18
**Author:** ![Bookkeeper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bookkeeper/32/281_2.png) [@Bookkeeper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bookkeeper)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2007, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-wrong-stuff-you-believed-to-an-embarrassingly-advanced-age/408477/341 "2007-06-22T20:00:47Z")
[QUOTE=matt\_mcl] In this case, “deserts” (still pronounced the same as “desserts”) is an archaic noun meaning “things that are deserved,” surviving only in this expression. [/QUOTE] So, I didn’t learn this until (checks date) I was 54! ---
**Author:** ![Ferd\_Burfel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ecccb3/32.png) [@Ferd\_Burfel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferd_Burfel)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2007, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-wrong-stuff-you-believed-to-an-embarrassingly-advanced-age/408477/342 "2007-06-22T20:06:51Z")
[QUOTE=Bookkeeper] I was a very precocious reader, and determined at an early age that both _misled_ and _infrared_ were very obviously the past tenses of the verbs _misle_ and _infrare_, and soon worked out the meaning from context (I was usually too lazy to get out the dictionary and hadn’t discovered the fun of word origins yet). It was years before I ever heard them pronounced. I still think the MY\_zled pronunciation sounds better 🙂 . [/QUOTE] That reminds me that when I first encounted infrared in print, the voice in my head pronounced as “In-FRARED” even though I had heard that portion of the spectrum referred to as Infra-Red and which I knew was at the opposite of the spectrum from Ultra-violet. ---
**Author:** ![Ferd\_Burfel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ecccb3/32.png) [@Ferd\_Burfel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferd_Burfel)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2007, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-wrong-stuff-you-believed-to-an-embarrassingly-advanced-age/408477/343 "2007-06-22T20:17:58Z")
[QUOTE=Bookkeeper] I was a very precocious reader, and determined at an early age that both _misled_ and _infrared_ were very obviously the past tenses of the verbs _misle_ and _infrare_, and soon worked out the meaning from context (I was usually too lazy to get out the dictionary and hadn’t discovered the fun of word origins yet). It was years before I ever heard them pronounced. I still think the MY\_zled pronunciation sounds better 🙂 . [/QUOTE] That reminds me that when I first encounted infrared in print, the voice in my head pronounced as “In-FRARED” even though I had heard that portion of the spectrum referred to as Infra-Red and which I knew was at the opposite of the spectrum from Ultra-violet. ---
**Author:** ![Helena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c68b51/32.png) [@Helena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Helena)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2007, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-wrong-stuff-you-believed-to-an-embarrassingly-advanced-age/408477/344 "2007-06-22T20:51:56Z")
From the FedEx logo article: > [@](#): > > the renown Los Angeles designer Saul Bass. Shouldn’t that be “renowned”? ---
**Author:** ![Hostile\_Dialect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e495f1/32.png) [@Hostile\_Dialect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hostile_Dialect)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2007, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-wrong-stuff-you-believed-to-an-embarrassingly-advanced-age/408477/345 "2007-06-22T20:58:16Z")
> [@Kyla](#): > > whose first language wasn’t even English Seems reasonable, given that “non sequitur” is Latin. ---
**Author:** ![Santo\_Rugger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e95f7d/32.png) [@Santo\_Rugger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Santo_Rugger)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2007, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-wrong-stuff-you-believed-to-an-embarrassingly-advanced-age/408477/346 "2007-06-23T00:09:47Z")
[QUOTE=Helena] From the FedEx logo article: Shouldn’t that be “renowned”? [/QUOTE] No, the designer _is still_ “widely acclaimed and highly honored”, he didn’t _used to be_ “widely acclaimed and highly honored”. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2007, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-wrong-stuff-you-believed-to-an-embarrassingly-advanced-age/408477/347 "2007-06-23T01:21:40Z")
[QUOTE=Sunspace] Excuse me? Jack is used as a nickname for John? The people I know who use those manes use them separately. [/QUOTE] They’re _both_ nicknames for Jonathan. I grew up with two and people always asked them “Do you go by Jack or John?” much in the same way Robert is Rob or Bob and William is Bill or Will. I’ve never met a “Jack” who wasn’t really named Jonathan. That’s just in the US, though. I learned last year that Jack is a very common given name in the UK and not short for anything. According to something I read it was the most common boys name in 2005 or 6. I wonder if a certain pirate contributed to that… ---
**Author:** ![Sarahfeena](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sarahfeena/32/519_2.png) [@Sarahfeena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sarahfeena)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2007, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-wrong-stuff-you-believed-to-an-embarrassingly-advanced-age/408477/348 "2007-06-23T02:13:02Z")
[QUOTE=elfkin477] They’re _both_ nicknames for Jonathan. I grew up with two and people always asked them “Do you go by Jack or John?” much in the same way Robert is Rob or Bob and William is Bill or Will. I’ve never met a “Jack” who wasn’t really named Jonathan. That’s just in the US, though. I learned last year that Jack is a very common given name in the UK and not short for anything. According to something I read it was the most common boys name in 2005 or 6. I wonder if a certain pirate contributed to that… [/QUOTE] I actually think that in the US “Jonathan” is pretty rare. Most Johns are just John. Jack is gaining popularity as a name in its own right here, also, although you are right that it used to be more common as a nickname for John. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2007, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-wrong-stuff-you-believed-to-an-embarrassingly-advanced-age/408477/349 "2007-06-23T03:53:35Z")
[QUOTE=Sarahfeena] I actually think that in the US “Jonathan” is pretty rare. Most Johns are just John. Jack is gaining popularity as a name in its own right here, also, although you are right that it used to be more common as a nickname for John. [/QUOTE] According to the [Social Security Name Database](http://www.ssa.gov/OACT/babynames/), Jonathan was the 19th most popular boy name in 2005. You have to go all the way back to 1968 for it to drop into the 50s and over the past 30-odd years it’s consistently been in the top 30 most popular boy names. I bet if you ask many of the Johns you know, they’ll tell you it’s a nickname. ---
**Author:** ![amarinth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3be4f8/32.png) [@amarinth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarinth)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2007, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-wrong-stuff-you-believed-to-an-embarrassingly-advanced-age/408477/350 "2007-06-23T03:57:14Z")
[QUOTE=elfkin477] They’re _both_ nicknames for Jonathan. [/QUOTE] Strangely, John and Jonathan are two different, unrelated names. Most "Jon"s I know are Jonathans. But John is probably John. ---
**Author:** ![Monstera\_deliciosa](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monstera_deliciosa/32/109_2.png) [@Monstera\_deliciosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monstera_deliciosa)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2007, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-wrong-stuff-you-believed-to-an-embarrassingly-advanced-age/408477/351 "2007-06-23T04:08:21Z")
[QUOTE=elfkin477] According to the [Social Security Name Database](http://www.ssa.gov/OACT/babynames/), Jonathan was the 19th most popular boy name in 2005. You have to go all the way back to 1968 for it to drop into the 50s and over the past 30-odd years it’s consistently been in the top 30 most popular boy names. I bet if you ask many of the Johns you know, they’ll tell you it’s a nickname. [/QUOTE] Yes, but according to the same site, “John” as a name has been in the top 20 for the past 15 years. Not only that, it was in the top 5 from 1960-1972 (number 2 in '63, '64 & '65) and the top ten until 1985). In that same time period, “Jonathan” peaked at number 15 in 1988, and was number 118 in 1960. “Jon” is a nickname for Jonathan. “John” is a longstanding popular name for boys in its own right. You know, as in John the Baptist, and the Gospel according to St. John. ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2007, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-wrong-stuff-you-believed-to-an-embarrassingly-advanced-age/408477/352 "2007-06-23T04:31:29Z")
[QUOTE=Pygmy Rugger] No, the designer _is still_ “widely acclaimed and highly honored”, he didn’t _used to be_ “widely acclaimed and highly honored”. [/QUOTE] That makes no difference whatsoever. The participle is routinely used to create adjectives from passive verbs. If I love someone right now, he is my beloved, or one of my loved ones. “Renown designer” is not English. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2007, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-wrong-stuff-you-believed-to-an-embarrassingly-advanced-age/408477/353 "2007-06-23T04:34:42Z")
[QUOTE=Sunspace] Perhaps, in your grandfather’s time, “dick” was not slang for “penis”. Considering the name Dick van Dyke, perhaps the slang didn’t take hold until sometime in the early sixties? Someone taking the nickname “Dick” _now_ would have no excuse. [/QUOTE] I’m fairly certain I’ve read literature that came out before my grandfathers’ time in which where “dick” was used as slang for “penis,” but I can’t give any cites offhand. I could look it up, but I’m heading out the door soon. Still, the band teacher in my junior high school was a “Dick,” and although he was quite a popular teacher and all-around nice guy, I’m sure he could not have been as deaf as he pretended to be to our giggling jibes. ---
**Author:** ![Freezair\_SilverEye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b2d939/32.png) [@Freezair\_SilverEye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freezair_SilverEye)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2007, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-wrong-stuff-you-believed-to-an-embarrassingly-advanced-age/408477/354 "2007-06-23T04:39:14Z")
I had read the word “hors d’ouevres” many times in print. From everything I had read, they seemed like fairly standard fare at parties. Seeing that, I couldn’t figure out why I’d never been served “horse dovers” at any party I’d ever been to. For some strange reason, I figured them as round brown crackers with cheese, and although I’d had crackers and cheese before, I’d never had “horse dovers.” About three months ago, I heard a group of radio hosts talking about words they couldn’t spell. “Oh, I can never remember how to spell ‘Orr-derves,’” one woman said. _Orr-derves?_ I thought. _I can spell that._ So I started writing it out on a piece of paper, but I could never get it to look right… And then it hit me. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2007, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-wrong-stuff-you-believed-to-an-embarrassingly-advanced-age/408477/355 "2007-06-23T04:41:32Z")
[QUOTE=Freezair SilverEye] I had read the word “hors d’ouevres” many times in print. From everything I had read, they seemed like fairly standard fare at parties. Seeing that, I couldn’t figure out why I’d never been served “horse dovers” at any party I’d ever been to. For some strange reason, I figured them as round brown crackers with cheese, and although I’d had crackers and cheese before, I’d never had “horse dovers.” About three months ago, I heard a group of radio hosts talking about words they couldn’t spell. “Oh, I can never remember how to spell ‘Orr-derves,’” one woman said. _Orr-derves?_ I thought. _I can spell that._ So I started writing it out on a piece of paper, but I could never get it to look right… And then it hit me. :smack: [/QUOTE] There was a young girl from Vancouver, Who when told it was not horses doover, Found she hadn’t the nerve To ask for hors d’oeuvres, So had soup as a saving manoeuvre. ---
**Author:** ![Freezair\_SilverEye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b2d939/32.png) [@Freezair\_SilverEye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freezair_SilverEye)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2007, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-wrong-stuff-you-believed-to-an-embarrassingly-advanced-age/408477/356 "2007-06-23T05:08:21Z")
[QUOTE=matt\_mcl] There was a young girl from Vancouver, Who when told it was not horses doover, Found she hadn’t the nerve To ask for hors d’oeuvres, So had soup as a saving manoeuvre. [/QUOTE] If I moved to the other side of the country, that would be me. 😃 Incidentally, I’ve always known where pineapples cam from. I read how to grow my own right in Charlie Brown’s _'Cyclopedia._ ---
**Author:** ![NajaNivea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/22d042/32.png) [@NajaNivea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NajaNivea)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2007, 5:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-wrong-stuff-you-believed-to-an-embarrassingly-advanced-age/408477/357 "2007-06-23T05:46:27Z")
Oh, also, I struggle with pronouncing “anemone” because as a kid, someone “corrected” my pronunciation and spelling. For almost two decades I used “anenome” and no one ever corrected me. I think I finally learned the truth when I saw it in print one day. I must have seen it printed hundreds of times, but my brain just read the incorrect reading and pronunciation without question. For some reason it caught my attention that time, and I had an internal :smack: moment. To this day I use “anenome” pretty much helplessly. I even double-checked Wiki to be sure I was using the correct and incorrect spellings in the right places in this post. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2007, 5:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-wrong-stuff-you-believed-to-an-embarrassingly-advanced-age/408477/358 "2007-06-23T05:49:13Z")
[QUOTE=elfkin477] According to the [Social Security Name Database](http://www.ssa.gov/OACT/babynames/), Jonathan was the 19th most popular boy name in 2005. You have to go all the way back to 1968 for it to drop into the 50s and over the past 30-odd years it’s consistently been in the top 30 most popular boy names. I bet if you ask many of the Johns you know, they’ll tell you it’s a nickname. [/QUOTE] Well I could ask my Grandfather, father and brother. Nope they are all John. (Ok two of them are dead so I didn’t ask them). Born 1885, 1927 and 1960. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2007, 5:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-wrong-stuff-you-believed-to-an-embarrassingly-advanced-age/408477/359 "2007-06-23T05:52:37Z")
[QUOTE=KayElCee] Yes, but according to the same site, “John” as a name has been in the top 20 for the past 15 years. Not only that, it was in the top 5 from 1960-1972 (number 2 in '63, '64 & '65) and the top ten until 1985). In that same time period, “Jonathan” peaked at number 15 in 1988, and was number 118 in 1960. [/QUOTE] While true, it’s completely irrelevant to whether or not Jonathan is **rare** , isn’t it? It’s not as common, but if 1 in 20 little boys has the name, it’s not rare…which is why I didn’t bother mentioning that I looked John up too given I didn’t claim Jonathan’s more or as common as John, just that it can hardly be considered rare. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2007, 6:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-wrong-stuff-you-believed-to-an-embarrassingly-advanced-age/408477/360 "2007-06-23T06:10:57Z")
[QUOTE=elfkin477] While true, it’s completely irrelevant to whether or not Jonathan is **rare** , isn’t it? It’s not as common, but if 1 in 20 little boys has the name, it’s not rare…which is why I didn’t bother mentioning that I looked John up too given I didn’t claim Jonathan’s more or as common as John, just that it can hardly be considered rare. [/QUOTE] It was an answer to your " I bet if you ask many of the Johns you know, they’ll tell you it’s a nickname." Every John I have ever met has the name John. Jon is usually a nickname. No one said Jonathan is rare. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-wrong-stuff-you-believed-to-an-embarrassingly-advanced-age/408477.md?page=17) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-wrong-stuff-you-believed-to-an-embarrassingly-advanced-age/408477.md?page=19)