There is an argument, which we’ve seen here, about if your real name is what you call yourself, or what other people call you, or what your official name is.
It’s clear that Diana, Princess is called Princess Di in some places, by some people. And that in some places, in some cases, to some people, the difference mattered. So it’s at least a SDMB nitpick. Whether it’s real or not, not so much.
There was a long involved quote in one of the Alice books about what things are called, versus their name, versus their title. I cant seem to find it.
Through the Looking-Glass, Ch. 8:
“…The name of the song is called ‘Haddocks’ Eyes’."
“Oh, that’s the name of the song, is it?” Alice said, trying to feel interested.
“No, you don’t understand,” the Knight said, looking a little vexed.
“That’s what the name is called. The name really is ‘The Aged Aged Man’.”
“Then I ought to have said ‘That’s what the song is called’?” Alice corrected herself.
“No, you oughtn’t: that’s quite another thing! The song is called ‘Ways And Means’: but that’s only what it’s called, you know!”
“Well, what is the song, then?” said Alice, who was by this time completely bewildered.
“I was coming to that,” the Knight said. “The song really is ‘A-sitting On A Gate’: and the tune’s my own invention.”
Don’t want to hijack the thread too much, but I remember watching “Name That Tune” back in the 1970s, and the first notes were played. The contestant hit the buzzer and replied “This Old Man!” Tom Kennedy said, “No, sorry, the title is ‘The Children’s Marching Song.’” At the time, I would have replied “This Old Man,” too.
@DrDeth explained it, but I’d put it in a class of “common beliefs of dubious veracity about animals” from the same time, e.g.
I don’t know how much any of this was ever actually taken seriously, and perhaps that is a misconception itself (that the average medieval person literally believed that lynx pee turns into gemstones, instead of taking it as entertainment). I certainly don’t think, for example, that 19th-century newspaper editors genuinely believed every stone giant that was dug out of the ground, and I don’t think they expected their readership to. Still, I’d argue that those stories fit the mold of what we’d call “urban legends” today.
Contemporary animal tales have a little bit more longevity, but not much so. Probably the only ones that still have currency are any number of animals that are said to mate for life, but are not monogamous in practice. More fun ones—the idea that lemmings swim because they are migrating to Lemuria, as William Duppa Crotch argued, or that coyotes steal watermelons by selecting the largest and roundest and rolling them off for miles—have long faded into obscurity.
Actually, I thought of another. The entire idea of alpha wolves, and the pack structure as a rigid hierarchy from alpha to beta to omega, might be a “misconception” rather than an “urban myth,” per se, but it has certainly held on for years after it no longer had currency amongst biologists.
Tom Kennedy was wrong. According to Wiki “It received a boost in popularity when it was adapted for the film The Inn of the Sixth Happiness (1958) by composer Malcolm Arnold as “The Children’s Marching Song”.”
But I don’t think the original song was ever called that.
As for animals, someone already mentioned lemmings committing mass suicide by jumping off a cliff. I’d like to mention one that might be an urban myth: the female praying mantis will often bite off the male’s head during mating. It was observed in the lab, but there is speculation that the lab environment caused stress in the mantis, resulting in the action.
Huh? Lynxes are a kind of cat…
I suspect a lot of the medieval animal myths were just the result of some earnest chap from an urban area coming and talking to what he considered a bunch of country idiots, and being made fun of without realising it. Bears are born shapeless and ‘licked into shape’? Weasels give birth through the ear?
Games of ‘let’s see what the tourist will believe’ are pretty widespread; it’s practically the national sport in Australia.
Good addendum, thanks.
Thanks!
Sometimes I wonder if the old “natural philosophers” ever saw an actual animal, or talked to a farmer.
Some thought that actually going out and doing experiments polluted pure thought.
And Wiki is never wrong.
Evidence to the contrary is always welcome.
Got any?
That’s what they want you to think!
(Modern etymologists trace lynx back to Greek λυγξ, lynx, meaning, uh, “lynx,” and eventually to the Proto-Indo-European root *lewk, “bright, shining,” apparently because of its visual acuity. Older scholars concluded that it came from λύκος, lykos, “wolf” and therefore that the lynx was a kind of wolf. In a similar fashion, identifying “panther” as pan (all) + ther (animal, beast) is what led them to conclude that it was a friend to all animals (except the dragon)).
But yeah: like you I have to imagine that even if most people had not seen a weasel, that’s an absurd fact to believe about them. On the other hand, the bear thing survived with little evolution from as early as Pliny to as late as Hildegard of Bingen and has some internal logic (since, obviously, “ursus” must come from Latin oris (ōs) + suo, “her mouth”). On the third hand, we’ve been saying the moon is made of green cheese since the 16th century without ever literally believing it.
(ursus comes from ἄρκτος, arctos, the north, but taboos associated with mentioning or naming bears makes the precise evolution a little unclear)
Does that explain why Aristotle never looked into a woman’s mouth?
If you are in the States and are asked to go Snipe hunting, be wary.
Or cow-tipping.
Cows hate it when that happens. And they are far larger than you are.
I mean, as long as the cow provided reasonably good service…
Here I am, a faithful Doper and '99er. And I’m going to cite Snopes. The research cited there seems quite solid and multi-sourced. It isn’t quite an urban myth. It does happen, but other factors need to be in play there.
Female Praying Mantis: Oh, John, I’m so excited! I must have you-- Right here! Right now!
Male Praying Mantis: No!!! Not in the lab!