History YouKeepUsingThatWord / VeryPedantic

* '''Lecher''' is almost always used today as a synonym for DirtyOldMan. It actually means any perverted and sexually unrestrained man (though typically with the connotation of being a {{Slimeball}} rather than a ChivalrousPervert,) regardless of age.

* '''Ago''' refers only to the present time. It is commonly misused in contexts where "earlier" or "prior" is more appropriate.

* '''{{TB}}''' does not stand for "tuberculosis", it stands for "tubercle bacillus", which is one name for the bacterium which causes tuberculosis.

* '''Thermos''' is a brand name for what is properly called [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vacuum_flask a vacuum flask]]. It was invented about two decades before Thermos started marketing it, by [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Dewar Sir James Dewar]], who unfortunately, refused to patent it. Most folks today use the brand name to describe ''any'' portable vacuum flask, or any similar device that keeps drinks cold.

* A '''jigsaw''' is a motorised saw which can cut wood into non-standard shapes. A puzzle made using a jigsaw is called a "jigsaw ''puzzle''" (and even that has become something of an ArtifactTitle since very few are actually made that way anymore).

* A '''jigsaw''' is a motorised saw which can cut wood into non-standard shapes. A puzzle made using a jigsaw is called a "jigsaw ''puzzle''".

* The word '''Holocaust''' has a meaning that comes to mind whenever it is mentioned, [[ThoseWackyNazis and it's not a pleasant one.]] The original meaning in ancient Greek was "given as burnt offering" or "completely consumed by fire". (Fans of ''Film/ThePrincessBride'' may remember how a "holocaust cloak" enabled Fezzik to appear as a flaming demon without being harmed.) Modern Jews would actually much prefer the word Shoah (שואה), a word meaning "calamity" or "tragedy" in Hebrew), be used for Nazi genocide, as they justifiably consider it mass-murder, rather than sacrifice.

** The word "pederast" refers specifically to a man in a (usually sexually charged) relationship with an adolescent male. Though often incorrectly thought to be an uneducated corruption of "pedophile", "pederast" is actually the older of the two words. The difference is in the Greek root word used for "lover", ἐραστής[[labelnote:romanization]]erastēs[[/labelnote]] instead of φίλος[[labelnote:romanization]]philos[[/labelnote]]; the former refers to ἔρως[[labelnote:romanization]]erōs[[/labelnote]], or sexual desire, while the latter refers to φιλία[[labelnote:romanization]]philia[[/labelnote]], a more general kind of love. (The Ancient Greeks[[note]]at least according to Creator/CSLewis; this is debated by linguists[[/note]] had four words for love: ἔρως, φιλία, στοργή[[labelnote:romanization]]storgē[[/labelnote]]--familial love, and ἀγάπη[[labelnote:romanization]]agapē[[/labelnote]]--divine love.)

* '''Anniversary''', means a celebration of one year, the root word ''anno'' being Latin for "year". However, it's used commonly by young people to refer to any time together from weeks to months to years. (A celebration of a month would be a "mensiversary", but that's a highly archaic term.) On another note, it's also quite common to disregard "celebration" as part of the word's definition -- which could resort in some discomfort when one mentions "the anniversary of 9/11", to say the least.

* Most '''plastic surgery''' is used to reconstruct parts of the body damaged in horrific accidents, such as severe burns. The beauty procedures which the phrase normally refers to should really be called '''cosmetic surgery''', which is just one type of plastic surgery. Moreover, some cosmetic techniques, such as Botox injections, do not actually qualify as plastic surgery under the formal definition.

* Originally, '''Waifu''' (and its SpearCounterpart term '''Husbando''') referred to a fictional character that a person loved obsessively, to the point they would marry the character if given the chance. But because it's possible for any character to inspire that level of obsession, it eventually meant "character one loved the most", then eventually "favorite character" or plain "cute girl/boy", which coincided with the point where phrases like "seasonal waifu" (i.e. favorite character ''that season'') started being used and unintentionally brought up imagery of philandering or polyamory. The original definition would eventually be a subset term, such as specifying that a person has "only one waifu".

* The '''Internet''' is simply the protocol that allows two computers to connect to each other, and has been around in one form or another since the 1960s. When people refer to "the Internet" they invariably mean "the World Wide Web", which is an information space which runs through the Internet, that allows computer users to visit, edit and create web pages stored on remote servers.

* '''Big Ben''' is the name of the bell at the top of the clock tower of the Palace of Westminster in London. The tower itself was simply known as the ''Clock Tower'' until 2012, when it was renamed the ''Elizabeth Tower'' for [[UsefulNotes/HMTheQueen the Queen's]] Diamond Jubilee, not Big Ben.

* '''Eau Rouge''', strictly speaking, refers only to the fast left-hander at bottom of the hill at the famous Spa-Francochamps circuit. The equally famous right-hander at the top of the hill that immediately follows it that's sometimes also called Eau Rouge? [[Memes/Sports That's Raidillon, actually]]. The entire ''circuit'' has a mish-mash of confusing corner names, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3SR7ezGLmQ which the official Formula One YouTube helpfully has a primer on]].

* '''Fantastic''', most commonly used to mean "great" or "cool", literally means "the stuff of fantasy". Thus, [[LordOfTheRings Mordor]] is every bit as "fantastic" as Rivendell. Its change from original meaning to the current usage came about the same way as "incredible" and "unbelievable" came to mean something like "amazing". Interestingly enough, the Coolio song "Fantastic Voyage" uses the word in its classical sense, as do some of our SpeculativeFictionTropes.

* The word '''average''' came from the french word for a damaged ship or shipment, avarie. This was anglicized into average during the colonization of the Americas, when there was a lot of English-to-French trade. Every time a shipment was damaged, they would calculate the total amount each person would have to pay by splitting the total up into equal pieces. Taking an average eventually moved from "splitting a sum up into equal parts" to "the most equal division of a certain sum", which is it's modern definition. You can see a bit of this old influence in the mathematical average calculation, which still involves adding things up and then dividing them.

* The Japanese word '''{{kaiju}}'''(怪獣[[labelnote:hiragana]]かいじゅう[[/labelnote]]) simply means "mysterious beast", but popular culture in general and Franchise/{{Godzilla}} in particular have shifted the definition more towards "[[AttackOfThe50FootWhatever giant ultra-destructive monster]]" (which would more properly be called a ''Dai-Kaiju''.

** On a related note: '''Lycanthrope''' specifically means werewolf (it comes from Ancient Greek and literally means "wolf person"). Some works erroneously use it to mean any were-creature. A better term to use would be ''werebeast''' or ''therianthrope''' (literally "beast person") if "werebeast" is too boring for you.

** IQ is in and of itself an incorrect term (unless the work happens to take place in the early to mid 20th century); the proper modern term would be '''IQ score'''. "IQ" stands for Intelligence Quotient and was proposed by Stern as a number derived from dividing the age which the individual's knowledge was most common at by the age they actually were. While this score worked fine for children, it was hard to construct valid scores for adults. The modern "IQ tests" such as the Stanford-Binet actually just centralize the bell curve of scores at 100 with an approximate standard deviation of 15 (and since the scores are derived from statistics, this means that [[YouFailTheIQTest extremely high IQ scores are often meaningless]]).

* '''Nakama''' (仲間[[labelnote:hiragana]]なかま[[/labelnote]]) means "friend", "comrade" or "colleague" in Japanese. If you were to stop a random Japanese person on the street of Osaka and ask, "Could you define the word 'nakama' for me?", the response wouldn't be "a group of friends who are as close as family", or "a group of friends that are ''closer'' than family". On the contrary, the response would simply be "friend", with none of the deeper connotations that people here on Wiki/TVTropes have ascribed to it. (Or at least, did, before [[Administrivia/RenamedTropes the trope name was changed]].) This incorrect use of the term originated in ''OnePiece'' fandom, though even there, only a small percentage of the ''OnePiece'' fans insist that the word means anything more than just "friends".