26 December, 2014

Misnomers

Ok, I couldn't find a word for what I'm talking about here and was going to call them "false descriptive names", then I found out they're called "misnomers". Knowing the correct term makes searching for more and being found much easier.
Plants And Animals
  • Seedless watermelon (they aren't really seedless, they just have small seeds. Why can't they be truly seedless like grapes?)
  • Peanuts are neither a pea nor a nut. 
  • The tarantula hawk is neither a tarantula nor a hawk.  
  • "Blue" and "yellow" when describing dogs.
Objects
  • Stainless steel (not really stain-proof)
  • Basically anything -proof. Waterproof, bulletproof, shockproof, etc.
  • Also, any physical substance that claims to be pure. You can only really say contaminants are below the level of detection.
  • Volkswagen's DQ200 Direct-Shift Gearbox, which is said to use "dry" clutches, which aren't really dry and still use oil, although less. 
  • Dry and sweet when describing wines (not really dry or sweet in the conventional sense, although the words dry and sweet could have different meanings)
  • Sandpaper contains neither sand nor paper.
  • Lots of "dry" things - dry cleaning, dry cell batteries 
  • Pencil leads aren't made of lead any more 
  • Decaffeinated coffee isn't caffeine-free
  • Free size / one-size-fits-all
Others
  • Ironically, most countries with "democratic" in their name - The Democratic People's Republic of Korea

No comments:

Post a Comment