History CommonlyMisusedWords / ModeratelyPedantic

* '''Penultimate''' means "next to last," but is sometimes incorrectly used to simply mean "last". '''Antepenultimate''' means "''next to'' next to last," (or more simply, third to last), but is seldom used these days. The original word for last was '''ultimate''' (''paene'' means "almost": compare to "peninsula" from ''paene'' and ''insula'' -- that is, island -- thus "almost an island"); however, all but the [[IncrediblyLamePun ultimate]] pedants have given up on convincing people that it means anything other than 'maximum'. Students of Latin are taught about the ultima, penult, and antepenult when it comes to placing the stress on the correct syllable of a word -- but then again, students of Latin probably don't need "penultimate" explained to them. And many people seem to also be under the impression that "penultimate" means something along the lines of "even more ultimate", which doesn't even make sense.

* '''Reboot''' often refers to any remake of an old tv series or film franchise. However, it's only a reboot if the new show starts from the beginning with fresh actors and the story revamped for modern tastes. If the show is a continuation of the previous series with the old actors returning and the story picking up where it left off, that's a '''revival'''.

* '''Hysteric(al)''' reactions may be funny to onlookers, but its original meaning is not "funny." "Hysterical" was originally used to describe a woman suffering from "hysteria", a psychological state of excessive emotion, especially fear, originally believed to be exclusive to women and caused by disruptions of the uterus (the term comes from Greek and literally translates as "womb-fury"). Specifically, the ancient Greeks [[ScienceMarchesOn believed that the uterus traveled around the body and attack the other organs]], presumably for no reason other than to make trouble for the men who would have to put up with the results. Even forgetting its unfortunate origins, today "hysterical" is often still used to mean that someone is temporarily out of their mind. As late as the 1940s, hysteria was commonly used to mean, roughly, [[OlderThanTheyThink PMS]]. As late as the 1970s, reprinted house and garden handbooks from the 1940s included '''home remedies for hysteria'''. Its meaning of "funny" has been attributed at least partly to the fact that it sounds similar to "hilarious."

* '''Entitled''' means "having title [right] to something," as in, for instance, elderly people or young orphans being entitled to pensions. It's often used a bit more loosely as short for "self-entitled," which means feeling like you have the right to something that you don't. Most loosely, it's often used as a synonym for "titled," as in "Miguel de Cervantes' most famous book is entitled ''Don Quixote''." You may be able to get away with the latter usage depending on how strict your professor or editor is.

* Non-specialists often confuse '''archaeology''' and '''palaeontology''', usually substituting the former for the latter. Archaeology is the study of physical remains of human material culture and activities, while palaeontology is the study of fossil organisms and trace fossils. Also, archaeology covers any time from the beginning of human material culture around 3.3 million years ago up to recent decades, while palaeontology studies remains from before the start of the Holocene period about 11,700 years ago. Thus archaeologists don't go looking for dinosaurs (at least, it's not in their job description).

* A '''rimshot''' is a percussion technique where a drummer hits the rim and the head of a snare drum with a drumstick at roughly the same time, slightly altering the sound of the drum stroke. That famous series of drumbeats used to sarcastically punctuate jokes ("Ba-dum-''tiss''") is technically called a "sting". Granted: when it's used to punctuate a comedian's jokes, a drummer's sting can often ''contain'' rimshots--but it often doesn't.

* Technically, the term '''dinosaur''' only refers to reptiles from the groups Ornithischia and Saurischia, but people often use it in a way that could be summed up as "any large pre-Cenozoic reptile that wasn't a turtle or crocodilian." As such, you often hear non-experts refer to pterosaurs (which were fairly closely related to dinosaurs) as well as marine reptiles such as ichthyosaurs, plesiosaurs, and mosasaurs as "dinosaurs," regardless of how doing so irritates some palaeontologists and fans of the subject.

* '''Moonshine''' is an American term for any alcohol produced illegally, without any government oversight or payment of excise taxes. The type of liquor isn't specified, but it's most commonly corn whiskey due to the abundance of corn in the US. But nowadays many American liquor stores (especially in the UsefulNotes/{{Appalachia}} region) sell "moonshine" that's just whiskey in a mason jar, produced under all the same regulations as the other liquors on the shelves. In this case, "moonshine" specifically refers to high-proof corn whiskey with sugar added during the mashing process, the most common way backyard moonshine is produced. But it can still refer to whatever concoction your brother's girlfriend's uncle's neighbor brews up in a still behind his toolshed, whether it's the traditional kind or not.

* '''Asian''' is a term denoting an origin in the continent of Asia, ranging from most of the Middle East to the Orient. In British usage, it is a common term used to denote a South Asian origin (ex. India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka), and the term Oriental is used to denote an East Asian origin. In Australian and American usage, it refers to the Far East (ex. China, Japan, Thailand, Vietman and Korea), and the term Oriental is offensive in North America. '''Oriental''' traditionally referred to the countries east of the Middle East, meaning such places as Turkey and India. In fact, the Orient Express only went as far as Istanbul in its heyday.

* '''Moonshine''' is an American term for any alcohol produced illegally, without any government oversight or payment of excise taxes. The type of liquor isn't specified, but it's most commonly corn whiskey due to the abundance of corn in the US. But nowadays many American liquor stores (especially in the UsefulNotes/{{Appalachia}} region) sell "moonshine" that's just whiskey in a mason jar, produced under all the same regulations as the other liquors on the shelves. In this case, "moonshine" specifically refers to high-proof corn whiskey with sugar added during the mashing process (the most common way backyard moonshine is produced). But it can still refer to whatever concoction your brother's girlfriend's uncle's neighbor brews up in a still behind his toolshed, whether it's the traditional kind or not.

* '''Moonshine''' is an American term for any alcohol produced illegally, without any government oversight or payment of excise taxes. The type of liquor isn't specified, but it's most commonly corn whiskey due to the abundance of corn in the US. But nowadays many American liquor stores (especially in the UsefulNotes/{{Appalachia}} region) sell "moonshine" that's just whiskey in a mason jar, produced under all the same regulations as the other liquors on the shelves. In this case, "moonshine" specifically refers to high-proof corn whiskey with sugar added during the mashing process (the most common way moonshine is produced). But it can still refer to whatever concoction your brother's girlfriend's uncle's neighbor brews up in a still in his back yard whether it's the traditional kind or not.

* '''Moonshine''' is an American term for any alcohol produced illegally, without any government oversight or payment of excise taxes. The type of liquor isn't specified, but it's most commonly corn whiskey due to the abundance of corn in the US. But nowadays many American liquor stores (especially in the UsefulNotes/{{Appalachia}} region) sell "moonshine" that's just whiskey in a mason jar, produced under all the same regulations as the other liquors on the shelves. In this case, "moonshine" has come to specifically refer to high-proof corn whiskey with sugar added during the mashing process. But it can still refer to whatever concoction your brother's girlfriend's uncle brews up in a still in his back yard.

* '''Moonshine''' is an American term for any alcohol produced illegally, without any government oversight or payment of excise taxes. The type of liquor isn't specified, but it's most commonly corn whiskey due to the abundance of corn in the US. But nowadays many American liquor stores (especially in the UsefulNotes/{{Appalachia}} region) sell "moonshine" that's just whiskey in a mason jar, produced under all the same regulations as the other liquors on the shelves. In this case, "moonshine" has come to specifically refer to high-proof corn whiskey with sugar added during the mashing process.

* '''Moonshine''' is an American term for any alcohol produced illegally, without any government oversight or payment of excise taxes. The type of liquor isn't specified, but it's most commonly corn whiskey due to the abundance of corn in the US. But nowadays many American liquor stores (especially in the UsefulNotes/{{Appalachia}} region) sell "moonshine" that's just whiskey a mason jar, produced under all the same regulations as the other liquors on the shelves. In this case, "moonshine" has come to specifically refer to high-proof corn whiskey with sugar added during the mashing process.