Totally wrong stuff you believed to an embarrassingly advanced age

[VarlosZ]

I believed until just a couple of years ago (I’m 27 now) that the phases of the moon were caused by the Earth’s interposing itself between the moon and the sun. GQ actually fought my ignorance on that one.

[Santo_Rugger]

I grew up in Grants, New Mexico, and I always thought the logo for Grants State Bank was just a design, and I didn’t see the “GSB” until I moved out of town.

I also didn’t realize the relationship between the pound sign (#), and lbs! :smack: I always envisioned it as being a “pound” sign, like a meat tenderizer.

I figured both of these out when I was about 21.

[Ms.Pumpkin]

@Pygmy Rugger

I also didn’t realize the relationship between the pound sign (#), and lbs! :smack: I always envisioned it as being a “pound” sign, like a meat tenderizer.

I figured both of these out when I was about 21.

Call me ignorant, but I still don’t understand what # has to do with pounds. To me, that’s a number sign.

[Hostile_Dialect]

@InvisibleWombat

(It’s PRIM-mer, for anyone else who doesn’t know)

Only in British English. (robardin had a typo, methinks. [The source[/url.) That makes your prescriptivist friend a bloody prat, IMO.

@Mama Tiger

Speaking of pronunciation, I learned some years back from a woman training to be in the field that “midwifery” is not pronounced as it looks, i.e. “mid-wife-er-ee,” but instead is “mid-wiff-er-ee.” It still sounds wrong to me, but that truly is correct. At least “midwife” is still pronounced like it looks.

Actually, both are correct. [url=http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?sourceid=Mozilla-search&va=midwifery]Cite](http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?sourceid=Mozilla-search&va=primer).

@Ms. Pumpkin

Call me ignorant, but I still don’t understand what # has to do with pounds. To me, that’s a number sign.

But it’s also called a “pound sign”. Surely you’ve heard that term in an automated phone system some time: “Please enter your PIN, followed by the pound sign.” What Pygmy Rugger is saying is that # is related to “lbs”, in the same way that & is related to “et”. (I’m not sure I believe him.)

[JustinC]

@bluethree

Until a few months ago I thought there was still a North and South Vietnam. cringe

Until this year i hadn’t realised there had been a North and South Vietnam. When i holidayed there it all became clearer. There still is a sort of north/south divide, where the north are the official-type industrial ones and the south more of a ‘live for today’ type. They both dislike each other vigorously.

[Stillwell_Angel]

@recessiveMeme

It took me a while to figure out that, for all intents and purposes, the phrase “for all intensive purposes” didn’t really mean what I thought it did.

This was mine too. I’m 38 and just learned within the past year or so that its “For all intents and purposes”. :smack:

[Gary_Robson]

@fetus

@InvisibleWombat

(It’s PRIM-mer, for anyone else who doesn’t know)

Only in British English. (robardin had a typo, methinks.

No, robardin had it quite right, according to the current edition of Webster’s Universal College Dictionary in my store. And my American Heritage Dictionary lists only PRIM-mer, with no mention of PRY-mer. Were you, perhaps, looking at the word that’s spelled the same but refers to igniters for explosives?

@Ms. Pumpkin

Call me ignorant, but I still don’t understand what # has to do with pounds. To me, that’s a number sign.

It’s an abbreviation for the word “pound.” Used frequently in old dry goods stores and general stores (as in “5# sacks of sugar”).

[Waenara]

@Pygmy Rugger

I grew up in Grants, New Mexico, and I always thought the logo for Grants State Bank was just a design, and I didn’t see the “GSB” until I moved out of town.

Similarly, until someone pointed it out in a previous thread, I never noticed the arrow in the Fedex logo - now it’s the first thing I notice every time I see it.

[Ms.Pumpkin]

@InvisibleWombat

It’s an abbreviation for the word “pound.” Used frequently in old dry goods stores and general stores (as in “5# sacks of sugar”).

Thank you, that’s the connection I wasn’t making.

[WF_Tomba]

@InvisibleWombat

It’s an abbreviation for the word “pound.” Used frequently in old dry goods stores and general stores (as in “5# sacks of sugar”).

I strongly recall reading that the connection between the symbol # and the word pound was actually introduced by the phone companies, and that all those old dry-goods salesmen were just following Ma Bell’s lead. Previously the symbol had been known as a hash mark. Actually, I remember reading this on the Straight Dope, but I can’t seem to find it by searching! :mad:

Also, I suspect vapid actually is related to vapor, even though the vowel is pronounced differently. Any Latin scholars want to back me up here?

For my part: until about 6th grade or so, I believed Germany was east of Turkey and Greece was somewhere near Greenland.

[Stringer]

@recessiveMeme

It took me a while to figure out that, for all intents and purposes, the phrase “for all intensive purposes” didn’t really mean what I thought it did.

I came in here for this one, I’m 25 and learned it 6 months ago.

[PastAllReason]

@robardin

WHAT?? :eek:

…FWIW, Webster’s says “PRY-mer” is an alternate pronunciation, but “Chiefly Brit.”. So pip pip and Cheerio my lad, Bob’s your uncle!

It’s a pronunciation also used in Canada. American usage came as a bit of a surprise to me,when I first heard it on the US version of the Antiques Roadshow.

I continue to wonder about the pronunciation of the name Joao. Sorry I’m missing the appropriate "o"s. Can anyone help?

[MissGypsy]

@Mama Tiger

Speaking of pronunciation, I learned some years back from a woman training to be in the field that “midwifery” is not pronounced as it looks, i.e. “mid-wife-er-ee,” but instead is “mid-wiff-er-ee.” It still sounds wrong to me, but that truly is correct. At least “midwife” is still pronounced like it looks.

I, too, only learned that a couple of years ago. On a related note, I only learned at 30 that when a pregnant woman’s water breaks, it isn’t just one big gush, like it is in movies. Learned that one first-hand, and was I ever surprised! :eek:

[gardentraveler]

For the vapid/vapor connection: Etymology Online says they’re probably related. (I’m sure there’s a more detailed etymology somewhere, but this site - which I met right here on the Dope - is really handy.)

I’m another one who learned where pineapples come from in a previous thread. And went :smack: because they’re so clearly related to bromeliads.

Learned about the FedEx arrow here, too, although I’ve forgotten it repeatedly.

Oh…and learned that misle wasn’t a verb meaning “to mislead” in a spelling test (or maybe it was a test of verb conjugations…something like that…I was in one of the early grades).

There’s more, I’m sure…

GT

[recessiveMeme]

Well, Stillwell Angel and micahjn, I’m glad it wasn’t just me.

Incidentally, did you guys know about the pineapples?

[tofergregg]

Oh my God – there’s an arrow in the FedEx symbol! Well, here’s one more person who’s never going to look at that symbol the same way again.

Two of my (since corrected) misconceptions:

1. Just before I moved to San Diego, I took a look at a map of that area, and when I saw Baja California, I thought, “Wow – I never knew California went down that far! So much for San Diego being the southernmost city in the state!” Doh.

2. While in college, just minutes into a first date, the girl I was with made a comment about a relative who was waiting to hear whether or not she had breast cancer. I replied, “well, I hope the pap smear comes out negative…” [post-correction embarrassment ensues]

-Tofer

[Shamozzle]

Not me personally, but I know many, many people who believe in two thousand year old stories despite overwhelming logical evidence and great progression in human thinking.

[Santo_Rugger]

Regarding the origin of the # symbol, Keith Gordon Irwin in, The Romance of Writing, p. 125 says: "The Italian libbra (from the old Latin word libra, “balance”) represented a weight almost exactly equal to the avoirdupois pound of England. The Italian abbreviation of lb with a line drawn across the letters was … used for both weights. The business clerk’s hurried way of writing the abbreviation appears to have been responsible for the # sign used for pound.

Source: Judy Herman. Scannings, Nov/Dec 1986

Taken from http://www.santacruzpl.org/readyref/files/g-l/gridlet.shtml

@Waenara

Similarly, until someone pointed it out in a previous thread, I never noticed the arrow in the Fedex logo - now it’s the first thing I notice every time I see it.

Me, too, and none of my friends I pointed it out to had noticed it before, either!

[Martha_Medea]

@tbdi

I bet they were confusing it with “At last”.

By Jove, I think he’s got it! Never occurred to me, but now that you point it out - it make absolute sense.

As far as I know both are “correct”.; at least I’ve heard and used both all my life.

The Brits weren’t having any of it. “InTUResting?” No - it had to be “intristing”. I must have misspent my childhood in the company of too many North Americans.
(Actually, that’s how my Mum, whose first language is Spanish and who learned English as an adult, pronounces it).

[pendgwen]

@gigi

Then why does the AED check to make sure there is no pulse before it will work?

The AED checks to see what the electrical activity of the heart is like. There are various patterns of electrical activity that so disorganized that the heart is not beating in a useful way. The AED shock can interrupt this and “re-set” the heart rhythm. If the AED finds no electrical activity it will not shock.