Talk:Misnomer/Archives/2013/April

Pencil leads never contained lead. I am moving pencils to the right section

According to the Wikipeida page for pencils and its supporting documents, pencil lead has always been made of graphite and not lead. The misnomer "pencil lead" was applied because the early users of graphite misidentified it. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 129.63.129.196 (talk) 21:16, 4 April 2013 (UTC)

Nevermind. The article sounds okay upon reading it a second time. Perhaps the language could be cleaned up so as not to be misleading. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 129.63.129.196 (talk) 21:20, 4 April 2013 (UTC)

CC=Carbon Copy?

I think this claim is probably an example of POV or OR; my understanding is that CC stands for "copies", in the same way that pp stands for "pages" and nn was once a common abbreviation for "names" (hence the expression "N or M", originally "N or NN", meaning "name or names"). —Preceding unsigned comment added by 217.171.129.78 (talk) 15:53, 19 March 2008 (UTC)

The RFC that specifies the format (2822) expands Cc as "carbon copy". Not dubious.

http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2822#section-3.6.3

91.152.166.106 (talk) 15:48, 8 April 2008 (UTC)

CC is not a misnomer as carbon copy refers to an old style of copying messages by using carbon paper. 68.144.80.168 (talk) 04:21, 21 July 2009 (UTC)

But it is a misnomer if used in the context of emails that use no carbon paper.129.63.129.196 (talk) 21:22, 4 April 2013 (UTC)

"Easter Thursday"

This is one which I would like to add to the main page, but which probably doesn't belong because a citation cannot be found.

In 2006, and again in 2007, I saw posters advertising a club night on "Easter Thursday", but in both cases the date given was that of Maundy Thursday (aka Holy Thursday), the Thursday before Easter. Easter Thursday is the Thursday of Easter Week, i.e. the Thursday after Easter.

I suspect that in both cases the designer was thinking in terms of the modern (Monday–Sunday) week, instead of the traditional Christian (Sunday–Saturday) one. -- Korax1214 (talk) 17:45, 28 March 2008 (UTC)

From my experience, Easter week is the week leading up to Easter Sunday, as it celebrates the last week of Christ's life leading up to his resurrection. For instance, Easter Friday is Good Friday, the day of Christ's crucifixion. 129.63.129.196 (talk) 21:27, 4 April 2013 (UTC)

No one calls gelatin "Jell-O"

Someone has repeatedly placed an item in the article as an example of "Transference of a well-known product brand name into a genericized trademark", claiming that "Jell-O" is used generically for "gelatin". I am 58 years old, a native English speaker, and I have lived throughout the United States. I have never heard anyone refer to gelatin as "Jell-O". If someone is listing the ingredients used to make jelly, for example, he does not say "add Jell-O". It's always "add gelatin".
Gelatin has uses other than making Jell-O, and in those situation it is always referred to as gelatin. Now, I have heard it the other way around, meaning I have heard some older people refer to Jell-O as a "gelatin dessert". And, in fact, some people inaccurately call gelatin desserts Jell-O that don't have the Jell-O brand. But calling a different gelatin dessert Jell-O is not the same as calling gelatin Jell-O (read the Witktionary explanation at wikt:Jell-O).
If enough people form a consensus here to include "Jell-O" as synonymous with "gelatin", I'll accept it. But unless that happens, that item needs to remain out of the article. It is simply one or two very confused people who insist on putting it into an article that is already full of ridiculous information. Ward3001 (talk) 23:39, 9 March 2009 (UTC)

In all the parts of the country that I have lived in (mountain West, East Coast), Jell-O is the only name for gelatin, no matter the brand.129.63.129.196 (talk) 21:36, 4 April 2013 (UTC)

Misnomer misnomers

The entries at Naming peculiar to the originator's world view, "America", "driveway", and "parkway" are all suspect. The name of the country is United States of America so using the adjective "American" is hardly a misnomer just because there are other uses of it. Parkways are ways (i.e., roads) through parks, hardly a misnomer. And driveways are ways (i.e., paths) to drive to one's dwelling. That one might also park, sell goods, or conduct other activities on them as well does not make the word a misnomer. Please present (preferably referenced) evidence of misnomerness or delete. — AjaxSmack 00:29, 19 September 2010 (UTC) An example of an ACTUAL misnomer of this type would be the "World Series".195.46.249.229 (talk) 09:32, 8 April 2013 (UTC)