# Words you misunderstood, until perhaps quite recently **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 24, 2006, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-misunderstood-until-perhaps-quite-recently/349774 "2006-03-24T20:30:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**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 24, 2006, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-misunderstood-until-perhaps-quite-recently/349774/1 "2006-03-24T20:30:55Z")
I learned recently that I had the definition of _epicene_ all wrong. I thought it meant roughly, “ephemerally tranquil and beautiful”. If you drink alcohol, imagine sitting at a quiet beach cafe on your second cocktail, as the sun goes down and the lights come on, before the crowd has really come in…that’s what I thought “epicene” was like. But instead, it means “ambiguous as to gender”, or effeminate or mannish, but without the negative spin of those terms. Rather like Martin Short’s character in the _Father Of The Bride_ movies. So I’m wondering if this sort of thing has happened to anyone else. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2006, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-misunderstood-until-perhaps-quite-recently/349774/2 "2006-03-24T20:39:13Z")
You included the only one I can think of recently: “ephemeral”. I thought it meant something that was all over. ---
**Author:** ![lee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lee/32/7455_2.png) [@lee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lee)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2006, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-misunderstood-until-perhaps-quite-recently/349774/3 "2006-03-25T01:26:48Z")
**KellyM** thought droll meant banal until quite recently. ---
**Author:** ![phouka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c5a1d2/32.png) [@phouka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phouka)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2006, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-misunderstood-until-perhaps-quite-recently/349774/4 "2006-03-25T03:17:47Z")
Nemesis is my latest discovery. I used to think it meant something like “arch-enemy”, and of course, there was the running joke on BtVS, Season 6, where the Evil Three referred to themselves as Buffy’s Arch-Nemesis…es, Nemeses…you know. No, turns out that a nemesis is an agent of divine justice. So, depending on what kind of justice you deserve, your nemesis could offer you a nice hot cup of tea with some lemon. And, as an agent of divine justice, there really is only the singular. There is no plural form of nemesis. ---
**Author:** ![dwc1970](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a183cd/32.png) [@dwc1970](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dwc1970)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2006, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-misunderstood-until-perhaps-quite-recently/349774/5 "2006-03-25T03:51:01Z")
**quintessential** - For a long time I thought this meant “very essential”, as in “five times as essential”, but all it means is typical. **fodder** - I often used this word to describe overly verbose wording, but it primarily means feed. ---
**Author:** ![Snooooopy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Snooooopy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snooooopy)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2006, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-misunderstood-until-perhaps-quite-recently/349774/6 "2006-03-25T04:26:02Z")
> [@phouka](#): > > Nemesis is my latest discovery. I used to think it meant something like “arch-enemy”, and of course, there was the running joke on BtVS, Season 6, where the Evil Three referred to themselves as Buffy’s Arch-Nemesis…es, Nemeses…you know. > > No, turns out that a nemesis is an agent of divine justice. So, depending on what kind of justice you deserve, your nemesis could offer you a nice hot cup of tea with some lemon. And, as an agent of divine justice, there really is only the singular. There is no plural form of nemesis. [This](http://www.m-w.com/dictionary/nemesis) site gives plurals of the word. To be fair, I went to that site expecting that it would offer the “archenemy” definition, because that’s what I like to define the word as meaning, but it didn’t. ---
**Author:** ![Lissa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lissa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissa)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2006, 7:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-misunderstood-until-perhaps-quite-recently/349774/7 "2006-03-25T07:31:38Z")
I didn’t know that “spic” was a racial epithet until about a year ago. I always thought it was a snide way of referring to someone who was super-compulsive about being clean, as in “Spic and Span.” (Thank God I never used it!) Yeah, go ahead and laugh-- my husband did. ---
**Author:** ![Sevastopol](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cdc98d/32.png) [@Sevastopol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sevastopol)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2006, 8:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-misunderstood-until-perhaps-quite-recently/349774/8 "2006-03-25T08:48:58Z")
Actually nemesis _does_ mean something close to ‘arch-enemy’. The definition mentions ‘retribution’ and ‘vengeance.’ ‘ **N** emesis’ is the proper name of the individual who is the divine agent. Similarly, quintessential _does_ mean something close to ‘very essential’. [reference](http://www.m-w.com/dictionary/quintessential) ---
**Author:** ![Miss\_Mapp](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miss_mapp/32/369_2.png) [@Miss\_Mapp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miss_Mapp)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2006, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-misunderstood-until-perhaps-quite-recently/349774/9 "2006-03-25T12:58:27Z")
For a long time, I thought that “mollify” was similar to “mortify,” but it actually means to soothe or pacify. ---
**Author:** ![Sir\_Prize](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d2c977/32.png) [@Sir\_Prize](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sir_Prize)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2006, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-misunderstood-until-perhaps-quite-recently/349774/10 "2006-03-25T15:37:02Z")
> [@phouka](#): > > Nemesis is my latest discovery. I used to think it meant something like “arch-enemy”, and of course, there was the running joke on BtVS, Season 6, where the Evil Three referred to themselves as Buffy’s Arch-Nemesis…es, Nemeses…you know. > > No, turns out that a nemesis is an agent of divine justice. So, depending on what kind of justice you deserve, your nemesis could offer you a nice hot cup of tea with some lemon. And, as an agent of divine justice, there really is only the singular. There is no plural form of nemesis. Words evolve. Today, nemesis is much more likely to mean arch-enemy or something that can not be overcome. ---
**Author:** ![pokey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ebca7d/32.png) [@pokey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pokey)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2006, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-misunderstood-until-perhaps-quite-recently/349774/11 "2006-03-25T16:14:27Z")
Up until last year or so I thought shallots were a type of fish, that actual shallots were called scallions, and that actual scallions were just called green onions. It’s a good thing I never do recipies. I also thought penultimate and ultimate meant the exact same thing until I was about 30. ---
**Author:** ![rubymermaid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c6cbf5/32.png) [@rubymermaid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rubymermaid)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2006, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-misunderstood-until-perhaps-quite-recently/349774/12 "2006-03-25T18:14:01Z")
My mother, who is one of those people who NEVER says bad words, described someone to me one day as a “C\*\*\*.” I hit the roof, telling her that that is a foul, vulgar, disgusting thing to say about any woman, and that she was never to use the word to me again. She looked rather sheepish and said, “Doesn’t that just mean ‘prostitute?’” ---
**Author:** ![delphica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9a140/32.png) [@delphica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/delphica)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2006, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-misunderstood-until-perhaps-quite-recently/349774/13 "2006-03-25T18:55:32Z")
For _years_, I thought attrition meant the opposite of what it means. This seems worse when you realize that in my workplace, the issue of attrition comes up _every day_. For example, if 90 out of a 100 students in a program complete their required credits, someone might say “huh, the attrition is okay, could be better” and I always thought they were talking about the 90 people, not the 10 people. When someone says “Here are our plans to improve attrition,” it kind of works either way so I was able to keep using my own personal definition for quite some time. If my boss would ask for info on attrition for some particular thing, I usually gave the whole package – 100/90/10 – so I guess I seemed thorough, as opposed to seeming like an idiot. The other alarming thing is that at work, we almost always look at “retention and attrition” instead of just “attrition” by itself. As I thought attrition _meant_ retention, one might think that eventually I would wonder why we had reports that essentially talked about “retention and retention” … but no, somehow that didn’t occur to me. I did have a vague sense that attrition was a more detailed analysis of retention. **Lissa** , good show on spic! 🙂 That’s priceless. ---
**Author:** ![Snooooopy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Snooooopy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snooooopy)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2006, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-misunderstood-until-perhaps-quite-recently/349774/14 "2006-03-25T19:12:50Z")
I always thought that prosciutto was a type of cheese. Then I asked this guy why it would be a problem including prosciutto in a vegetarian meal. ---
**Author:** ![Miss\_Mapp](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miss_mapp/32/369_2.png) [@Miss\_Mapp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miss_Mapp)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2006, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-misunderstood-until-perhaps-quite-recently/349774/15 "2006-03-25T19:54:27Z")
> [@pokey](#): > > I also thought penultimate and ultimate meant the exact same thing until I was about 30. My father still does. Actually, the way he uses “penultimate,” I think he thinks it means “beyond” the ultimate, or extra special super-ultimate. ---
**Author:** ![Plan\_B](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Plan\_B](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Plan_B)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2006, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-misunderstood-until-perhaps-quite-recently/349774/16 "2006-03-26T05:20:53Z")
> [@Snooooopy](#): > > I always thought that prosciutto was a type of cheese. > > Then I asked this guy why it would be a problem including prosciutto in a vegetarian meal. I used to think pepperoni was derived from peppers. ---
**Author:** ![NAF1138](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naf1138/32/3245_2.png) [@NAF1138](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NAF1138)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2006, 6:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-misunderstood-until-perhaps-quite-recently/349774/17 "2006-03-26T06:43:19Z")
I only recently learned that nonplussed meant confused. I always thought that it meant relaxed, as though to be plussed was to be in a state of agitation. So being nonplussed by a situation meant it didn’t phase you. ---
**Author:** ![Speaker\_for\_the\_Dead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c77e96/32.png) [@Speaker\_for\_the\_Dead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Speaker_for_the_Dead)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2006, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-misunderstood-until-perhaps-quite-recently/349774/18 "2006-03-26T16:29:53Z")
> [@rubymermaid](#): > > My mother, who is one of those people who NEVER says bad words, described someone to me one day as a “C\*\*\*.” I hit the roof, telling her that that is a foul, vulgar, disgusting thing to say about any woman, and that she was never to use the word to me again. She looked rather sheepish and said, “Doesn’t that just mean ‘prostitute?’” If she’s the sort of woman who never uses bad words, it seems like you reacted pretty harshly, there. Wouldn’t it have been simpler to ask “are you sure you know what that word means, Mom?” Clearly, she deserved the benefit of the doubt. As to my own misunderstandings, I didn’t make the “ravish”-“rape” connection until fairly recently. At worst, I thought it meant something like “to injure minorly, to terrify.” ---
**Author:** ![Nic2004](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/4491bb/32.png) [@Nic2004](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nic2004)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2006, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-misunderstood-until-perhaps-quite-recently/349774/19 "2006-03-26T17:24:01Z")
> [@NAF1138](#): > > I only recently learned that nonplussed meant confused. I always thought that it meant relaxed, as though to be plussed was to be in a state of agitation. So being nonplussed by a situation meant it didn’t phase you. This one was mine as well. I equated “plussed” with “impressed” (as in a plus/positive effect) and therefore nonplussed meant someone or something was unimpressive or having no effect. **Disingenuous** is another. I figured if “genuous” was like genuine then ingenuous is not genuine; therefore disingenuious would be sincere, real, honest. …but I’m feeling much better now ---
**Author:** ![seosamh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce7236/32.png) [@seosamh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/seosamh)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2006, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-misunderstood-until-perhaps-quite-recently/349774/20 "2006-03-26T20:21:18Z")
It’s not exactly recent, but with the death last week of John Profumo (if you don’t immediately know who he was, the film [“Scandal”](http://uk.imdb.com/title/tt0098260/) was based on the incident for which he was most famous) I was reminded of my childhood misunderstanding of the word “osteopath”. Profumo was the Minister for War but was involved with prostitutes, one of whom, Christine Keeler, was also seeing a Russian military attache. It wasn’t the risk of “pillow-talk” being passed to the Russkis that did for him, it was the fact that he lied about his liaison with Ms Keeler to Parliament. Anyway, I recall as a kid of 4 or 5 seeing the scandal unfold on the TV news. One prominent figure was a bloke called [Stephen Ward](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/newreply.php?do=newreply&noquote=1&p=7234899#), who was always referred to as a “society osteopath”. I must have known the word “psychopath” and therefore imagined that “osteopath” was something bad - in my mind, it meant a procurer of prostitutes. I must have been about 12 before I found out what it actually meant. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-misunderstood-until-perhaps-quite-recently/349774.md?page=2)