History YouKeepUsingThatWord / ModeratelyPedantic

'''Many of the "common" usages here have become accepted definitions of the words listed. Do not treat a definition as incorrect simply because it is listed here.'''

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* '''Addict''' in adjective form is "addictive". However, clumsy attempts to mangle it into this form tend to fall to "addicting" instead, which is actually a gerund (which is a noun) or even a verb, but not an adjective. To put it simply, if you were to say "Cocaine is addicting" you would be implying that cocaine is, right now, in the process of getting someone addicted. While that may be true it's probably not what the speaker actually meant to say.
** In technical medical terms, "addictive" refers only to substances which, when their use by a habitual users is discontinued, result in physical withdrawal symptoms. Thus you get people insisting that things like marijuana and [=MMOs=] are not "addictive," which is [[ExactWords technically true]] for a given definition of "addictive," but does not address the more realistic concern that they might be ''habit-forming'' to an unhealthy degree in some users.
** Even more confusingly, there is a distinction sometimes made between addiction and '''dependence'''. Addiction here means that you have cravings for something if deprived of it; dependence means that you will have withdrawal symptoms; but being dependent on something (like a medication) does not necessarily mean you are addicted to it, and being addicted to something does not mean you are dependent on it (note this is almost the opposite of the definition above). For example, a diabetic is ''dependent'' on insulin, but not addicted to it.
* '''Anarchy''' literally means "without a ruler", coming from the roots "an-" or "no" and "archy" or "rule". Anarchism is a political position opposed to government as well as to other forms of hierarchy or authority. Anarchists believe that social harmony can be more easily maintained through cooperation rather than competition. However, the word "anarchy" has come to mean the opposite: [[AnarchyIsChaos a state of violent chaos due to a lack of central authority]]. The word "anarchist" has also been used to mean a [[BombThrowingAnarchists terrorist or sower of discord]], a perception influenced by a rash of terrorist acts and assassinations in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, which were committed by anarchists. And even theorists [[WeAREStrugglingTogether didn't always agree anyway]] on what it means:
--> "Anarchism is no patent solution for all human problems, no Utopia of a perfect social order, as it has so often been called, since on principle it rejects all absolute schemes and concepts. It does not believe in any absolute truth, or in definite final goals for human development, but in an unlimited perfectibility of social arrangements and human living conditions, which are always straining after higher forms of expression, and to which for this reason one can assign no definite terminus nor set any fixed goal." — Rudolf Rocker, [[http://theanarchistlibrary.org/HTML/Rudolf_Rocker__Anarchosyndicalism.html Anarcho-Syndicalism]], 1938.
** To be even more precise, 'anarchy' comes from 'an-' (not) and 'arche' (higher/highest), meaning a form of social organization, with no one standing above anyone else. It is a regime without a ruler, but not without rules. A direct democracy, where every conflict is solved by a common voting by people who have equal vote (or a common consensus) is an example of anarchy.
* '''Anorexia''' is often used as a term for a serious eating disorder that causes strong aversion to food, which can lead to severe (or even ''fatal'') malnutrition if left untreated. On its own, though, "anorexia" just means "loss of appetite", and it's generally a ''symptom'' of disease rather than a disease in itself. The eating disorder is formally known as ''"Anorexia nervosa"'', but it's often called "anorexia" for short.
* '''Artificial Intelligence''' is, as its name implies, a machine that acts as if it's intelligent: ask most computer scientists and they'll tell you that one big important factor in determining whether a machine can be called an AI is whether it's capable of learning (specifically, being able to change and adapt its strategies when it receives new information). However, outside of computer technology and especially when it comes to games AI has simply come to mean "the computer", which can irk computer scientists as the computer isn't "intelligent" but just following a giant list of "''if X, then do Y''" instructions.
* '''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.
** And essentially no one considers Russians to be Asian even though 77% of Russia falls within the continent of Asia (to be fair, though, despite the majority of Russia being in Asia, the majority of ''Russians'' live in Europe).
* Before being adopted by 19th-century European and American "racial scientists" and subsquently Nazis and white supremacists, '''Aryan''' was originally the term of choice for Indo-Iranian peoples because they called themselves ''Arya''. Whatever Arya originally meant, it was more of socio-linguistic designation than an ethnic one. Some of them may have had blond hair, but the majority probably didn't. By this definition, then, the descendants of the Aryans can be found in countries such as India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran[[note]]Should be pretty obvious since Iran literally means, "Land of the Aryans."[[/note]], Tajikistan and Bangladesh. (In India, ''Aryan'' is opposed to ''Dravidian''.)
** The word itself means something akin to "well formed", from a root ''*ar-'' (which survives in the Greek ''aristos'', "best", and English ''art'', amongst others). As applied to the people themselves and their language, it probably carries the meaning "skillfully assembled, rightly proportioned, obeying the right customs" or similar, with the feeling of "one of us" (its precise opposite, ''anarya'', is frequently used to mean "wrong" or "other"). This, along with its status as the earliest attested Indo-European autonym, is one of the reasons it was adopted by white supremacists to label their racial ideal. It's more than likely that none of them had blond hair (this was considered a marker of specifically "Germanic" rather than Aryan heritage), because their origins were likely as nomads on the Pontic-Caspian steppe, where blond hair is rare.
** The Aryan Dravidian divide of India was deliberately created by Christian invaders as one of many efforts to prevent the areas they occupied from becoming [[DivideAndConquer too unified against them]]. Unique culture and language did develop in the Dravida region, obviously, but prior to colonization they were still accepted as Aryan. As the occupying powers were expelled an ongoing effort to reestablish the whole of India being Aryan began, taken up by Mahatma Gandhi no less, but success has been limited.
** Speaking of Aryans, the Nazis had a very, ah, ''unusual'' (read: arbitrary) definition of Aryan. They could never really decide if "Aryan" meant Indo-European, White European, Nordic/Germanic European, Non-Jewish European, and/or Non-Slavic European. They also classified a number of people as Aryan which even modern white supremacists would find a little puzzling. Many Germans liked Creator/KarlMay novels, so the Sioux became Aryans. For political convenience, the Japanese were Aryans. Nazi mythology placed the Aryan homeland in Tibet due to connection with Theosophy, so Tibetans were Aryans, too, even though the Tibetans are more closely related to the Burmese and Chinese than anyone else. Perhaps most bizarrely of all, the Nazis decided that their allies the Croats were Aryans whereas the ethnically identical Serbs were Slavic ''Untermenschen.''
* '''Censorship''' refers to a higher power, such as the government or a corporation, suppressing speech, or other forms of information, on the grounds that such material is harmful or offensive. Over time the phrase has been confused with the First Amendment (which doesn't even contain the ''word'' censorship), and it is now not uncommon to hear people say that censorship ''only'' refers to government censorship, as that is the only form of censorship the First Amendment protects you from.
* '''Depreciate''' means "to decrease in value." The extremely similar '''depre''cate''''' means "to become obsolete." Something can be depreciated without being deprecated, but not vice versa. Both words can mean "to belittle" or "to disparage", which really just adds to the confusion.
* '''Gay''' originally meant something closer to "carefree, with undertones of being unrestricted by social conventions". Later on, it was used to describe [[ReallyGetsAround sexually active women]], who were most definitely of the kind referred to as 'straight' today. It now describes homosexuals and is technically gender-neutral but mostly used for men. To top it off, it's seen heavy use as an insult lately.
** Some people that use Gay as an insult and are called out on it attempt to weasel out of the mess by saying they were using the [[HaveAGayOldTime "happy"]] version of the word.
* '''Gene''' is often used to mean "allele". An allele is one of multiple forms a gene assumes. For example, there is no human gene for brown hair; there's a gene for hair color in general, and one of its alleles results in brown hair. A valuable distinction for biologists, but not one that most people care about when they're at the movies.
* To draw from a [[Literature/TheBible Biblical]] parable, a '''Good Samaritan''' is someone who helps even those that persecute him. In Biblical times the Samaritans were an ethno-religious group that was shunned heavily by the Jewish people. This was the entire purpose of the parable: a Samaritan saved the life of a dying Jew, thereby proving that goodness is not constrained by ethnic, cultural, or religious boundaries; even people you hate can do good, and you should still do good even for people who hate you. However, due to a lack of context, many people simply assume "Good Samaritan" to mean any person who does good deeds for any reason. Even worse, some people drop the "good" and just use "Samaritan" to refer to any good person, even though it originally meant the opposite. To put it in a more nerdy way: the Comicbook/XMen, who fight to protect humanity even though humans despise them, are Good Samaritans. {{Superman}}, however, is ''not'' a Good Samaritan because he rarely if ever faces public persecution.
** Furthermore, considering the ethnic/religious group known as the Samaritans still exists, calling someone a "Samaritan" is the same thing as saying that they are a part of this group. Calling someone a "Good Samaritan" could be considered the same as calling someone a "[[YouAreACreditToYourRace Good Jew]]" or even a "[[UnfortunateImplications Good African]]." Not necessarily an insult, per se, but still very likely to offend some people.
* '''"I could care less"''' is incorrect according to the literal meaning of the words. The phrase you're looking for is '''"I couldn't care less"'''; by saying that you ''could'' care less, you're saying that you ''do'' care.
* A '''Libertarian''' and '''Libertarianism''' has been a synonym/euphemism for "Anarchism" as far back as the 1890s. Libertarian Athenaeums gave thousands of people access to basic education--including pioneering sexual education--and Libertarian Unions stood against the State and the Capitalist establishment. All this hasn't stopped the U.S. right-wing "libertarian" movement--which started in the late 1950s and is a staunch proponent of Capitalism--from claiming exclusive rights to both terms. While in a vacuum libertarianism shares most of the anarchist values, such as personal freedom with no state intervention, within mainstream politics libertarians normally are saying they want those things, but only as far as is reasonable within the current political system. They aren't incorrect to say that they are 'supporting liberty', but they don't want to tear down the democracy for it either. In essence, any political term that is used in the modern political mainstream needs to come with the rider 'but without wrecking democracy'. It would probably be more correct to call such people 'Democratic Libertarians', as they support the democratic system and individual liberty, but since they are a part of the democratic system it pretty much comes as read that they are OK with democratic politics.
* The phrase '''mano a mano''' is widely, but incorrectly, used to mean one-on-one (usually in the context of a fight or contest) - "man to man." This likely stems from "mano" being a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_friend false friend]] for the English word "man." However, "mano" is actually Spanish for "hand." The phrase means "hand to hand," such as fighting in close quarters, and has nothing to do with the number of parties involved or the genders thereof.
* '''Melee''' means a confusing, chaotic hand-to-hand fight (possibly free-for-all — the word literally means "mixed", implying that the two sides fighting one another are mixed amongst themselves). In most VideoGames however, it seems to be applied in a way that just means 'close-quarters range/fight'. If you're playing some sort of strategy game in which fights of a one-on-one nature are rare if they ever happen, the word may have a reasonable context. In other games, probably not.
** Most video games just flat out refer to 'melee' weapons as the opposite of 'ranged' weapons and 'melee' itself as the opposite of 'casting spells' and/or 'shooting firearms'. In other words, in modern gaming parlance, the word 'melee' just means 'hand to hand'.
* '''Prodigal''' means "wasteful", not "wandering" or "long-lost". The Prodigal Son was the one who squandered his money; the wandering-and-returning happened in the process of his doing so. However, because of this parable, the word is very frequently understood to mean "lost".
** Alternately, some people use prodigal to mean that someone is bad family. Again, while the prodigal son could be considered to have been a bad son and a bad brother, that is still not the meaning of the term.
** Some people also use prodigal as an adjective form for the word "prodigy." While this is a bit understandable, as the two words do look similar, it is very wrong as the two words have nearly opposite meanings. For the record, the actual adjective form of prodigy is "prodigious."
* '''Race''', '''species''', '''phylum''', and basically everything else from TaxonomicTermConfusion. Using "race" when you mean "species" is often forgivable in fantasy settings; even in RealLife, we have expressions like "the human race." Using "phylum" when you mean "taxon" is worse.
** Doubly so on the fantasy setting point, as while "species" is fairly well defined in terms of viable reproduction, and while individual races, families, orders, classes, phyla and kingdoms are well defined in terms of particular phenotypical characteristics, there is no clear abstract definition (unlike for species) of when you should consider some novel set of similar creatures to constitute a new phylum (as opposed to a new class), meaning that the terms have little clear meaning outside an Earth biology context. If you say two distantly related alien species are part of the same phylum and I say they are merely part of the same kingdom, there is no principled way to resolve the dispute.
** Historically, the word "race" has been used to mean anything from all humanity to a single family line. In ''Literature/TheLuckOfBarryLyndon'', the title character at one point laments that it was not destined that he should leave any of "my race" on Earth after his death -- meaning, not humans, nor white people, nor Irish people, but people of the Barry family. On Wikipedia, one old map depicts "Races of the Austro-Hungarian Empire" -- meaning, nationalities, or ethnocultural groups with a common language -- Germans, Hungarians, Ukrainians, etc.; all of them would have been more or less the same colour. Before the mid-twentieth century, "race" could be applied to any group of living things that perpetuated itself. In the 18th century, people wrote of the "race of labourers" and the "race of tailors". That's why whenever we see a pre-1940 use of the word "race," we mustn't simply assume that it refers to skin color. When people of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries spoke of "racial purity" or "racial improvement," they could have simply meant advances in medical technology for a particular country's citizens. In particular, the full title of UsefulNotes/CharlesDarwin's opus is "On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life". The "Favoured Races" here pretty much means species, not the kind of "Favoured Races" Hitler was talking about.
** In modern times, a "race" is any group of people identified by specific physical traits that are deemed socially significant (as opposed to "ethnicity," which goes by cultural traits). With this in mind, race is a cultural construct, a judgment that the observer places on the observed, and not something with any basis in any somatic or genetic interpretation. Any attempts to create a taxonomy for race on the basis of physical appearance fails pretty quickly; after all, how black does one need to be "African," bearing in mind people of similar skin tones live on different continents. Are Indians Asian, with their dark skin and western facial features? The more specific the classification, the more members of that "race" are excluded; the fewer used, the more inaccurate such classifications get.
* '''Regime''' or '''[[GratuitousFrench Régime]]''' simply refers to ''any'' state government: the United States (a representative democratic republic) and North Korea (an odd mix of a ''de facto'' absolute monarchy, a totalitarian police state, and a pharaonic cult) are both regimes. In general usage, it is now mostly used to refer only to tyrannical, authoritarian, or repressive governments; political scholars have other definitions. In political theory it continues to mean "any form of government", and in international relations, it has come to mean "any political order of any kind, even if it isn't the government of a state" (e.g. "arms-control regime",[[note]]so the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, the Chemical Weapons Convention, and other treaties together form the "global arms-control regime"[[/note]] "river-management regime",[[note]]e.g. the various interrelated international agencies designed to manage the Danube from various angles: trade, environment, water supply, tourism...[[/note]] "regional security regime",[[note]]For instance, UsefulNotes/{{NATO}} and the various bilateral and multilateral security arrangements between the US, Canada, and the countries of Western Europe together make the North Atlantic/Western European regional security regime[[/note]] etc.)--this latter use of "regime" is the focus of "[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regime_theory regime theory]]," one of the more important movements in international relations since the late 1990s.
* '''Siege''' is often used in media to mean simply "we're being attacked/invaded." To be under siege is to be surrounded by troops, and cut off from supplies so as to slowly starve until surrender. Unless the person is being surrounded or cut off from supplies, this doesn't really work.
* '''UFO''' stands for Unidentified Flying Object, meaning that there's something moving in the sky, but you're not sure what it is. If it's obvious that said object is an extraterrestrial spacecraft, then it has been identified and no longer qualifies as a UFO. The Literature/BastardOperatorFromHell lampshaded this one when it was pointed out that there was an "extortionate penalty payment for remaining at work after a UFO sighting in the vicinity of the building" written into his contract, which he later invokes by asking "is that a 747-200F or a 747-200C?".
** Though, if you think about it, [[MindScrew even calling something a UFO can be considered a form of identification, therefore nothing can be technically considered a UFO]].


* '''Lame''' (unable to walk) and '''dumb''' (unable to speak) went from their respective meanings to both being synonyms for "stupid" thanks to the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euphemism_treadmill#Euphemism_treadmill euphemism treadmill]]. Words denoting negatively perceived characteristics naturally become used as insults. '''Idiot''' (having an IQ of 0 to 20), '''imbecile''' (having an IQ of 21 to 50), '''moron''' (having an IQ of 51 to 70), and '''cretin''' (someone who suffers from cretinism, i.e. severe mental and physical disabilities caused by congenital hypothyroidism) were medical terms in the early 20th century, and "LD" for "learning disability" is already being used as a playground insult, as is "ADHD" or "Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder".
** The word '''stupid''' itself even qualifies. Originally it meant "in a stupor", so calling somebody stupid didn't mean they were unintelligent, but rather unresponsive or comatose.
** "Dumb" as stupid and "dumb" as mute both come from "dumb" defined as "lacking an expected property", which is the etymology of "dummy". The OED suggests the Proto-Germanic meaning to be something like 'stupid', 'not understanding' (compare Modern German ''dumm'', ''tumb'').
** '''Retarded''' technically means to be hindered or slowed down (hence its use in the term "retard bomb" which simply means that it falls slower than usual), but used to mean that someone has a mental disability and is unable to learn at a normal rate. Recently, it turned into a synonym for stupid. Unlike the others, it is still seen as offensive, while it would take someone ''very'' touchy to get annoyed at "lame" or "stupid".[[note]]Unless you are actually disabled or are close with people who are -- in which case, you might very well be annoyed with the use of "lame" as a pejorative.[[/note]] The word is still considered a valid medical term and used in medical textbooks, although generally with an appended note warning prospective nurses and doctors to never use it within earshot of their patients and families.
*** Also, the only thing that can be retarded in this context is a human being, because 'retarded' is an abbreviation of 'retarded in mental development'. There is no such thing as 'retarded joke' or 'retarded behavior' (unless 'retarded' is used as synonym of 'delayed', as in the bomb example above).
* '''Cretin''': The most common derivation provided in English dictionaries is from the Alpine French dialect pronunciation of the word Chrétien, meaning Christian. Another misconception is that 'cretin' originally referred to the mainland Greeks' supposed low opinion of the inhabitants of Crete island. This is false: first, there is no mention of any persistent common prejudice directed to people from Crete from other Greeks, and second, in Greek, people from Crete are called 'Kretikoi', which would be transliterated to 'Cretics', not Cretans or Cretins.
* The word '''child''' has different meanings, depending on the context in which it is used. Biologically, a child is a human who has not attained puberty. Legally, "child" may used in different ways depending on the purpose in question (such as immigration law or the age of consent), but generally refers to an individual under the age of majority - this is generally 18 (as per the UN's Convention on the Rights of the Child), but ranges internationally from 15 to 21. "Child" also refers to the offspring of someone, regardless of what age they are.
** The related term '''adolescent''' refers to a human who has reached puberty but has not reached full growth or another developmental cutoff point. What constitutes the end of adolescence varies depending on the purpose. Legally, adolescence ends at the age of majority, whereas medically and psychologically definitions often extend it well into ones twenties.
*** The term '''teenager''' or '''teen''' refers to humans aged 13-19, but is often used as a synonym for "adolescent".
** '''Youth''' is another imprecise term for the period of life where one is young or for young people in general. It often refers to the period of life encompassing childhood, adolescence and young adulthood. It may also be used to refer exclusively to adolescents under the age of majority.
** A '''baby''' (or an '''infant''') is a very young child (generally under age 1) who has yet to learn how to walk. In common use, "baby" is often used as an affectionate term for one's lover. It may also be used to refer to miniature versions of objects, for example "baby carrots", "baby piano" or "baby corn".
* '''Critic''', incidentally, is unrelated to either; its root is the same as that of ''crisis'' and ''crime'', among others: a verb meaning to distinguish between one thing and another. (A crisis is the moment of decision between two outcomes; criminal law distinguishes between what is and is not tolerated; a critic points out distinctions between good and bad art.) For this you tend to use ''criteria'' (which is the plural of ''criterion'').
* '''To beg the question''' is to [[LogicalFallacies commit a logical fallacy]] in which the proposition to be proved is assumed implicitly or explicitly in one of the premises (e.g. "Of course I had a reason for doing it -- otherwise, I wouldn't have done it!"). The phrase, however, is frequently used with the meaning "to ''raise'' the question" (e.g. "If you didn't put the overalls in Mrs. Murphy's chowder, it begs the question of who did."). The Latin name for it is ''petitio principii'', literally, "assuming the initial point", they should have just ''called'' it "assuming the point" rather than "begging the question" for the fallacy's relation to circular reasoning. In general it implies something like "to request that one's opponent concede the initial point".
* '''Moral equivalent''': often, this phrase is used in the context of considering the metaphorical "scales" of ethics to be balanced: neither is more good (or bad) than the other. This is based on a misunderstanding (almost an inversion) of the intended meaning. William James wrote of "...war, or its moral equivalent." James meant that in modern societies war serves a purpose; the "moral equivalent" would be something which provides a similar function, but (unlike war) is ''not immoral''.
* Piloted HumongousMecha are typically called '''Giant Robots''' despite the textbook definition of robot being "an ''autonomous'' device".
** This goes for smaller ones too, like the machines in ''Series/{{Battlebots}}'' and ''Series/RobotWars'' being remote-controlled rather than autonomous.
* Some tropers have described the male counterpart to an AlwaysFemale trope as a DistaffCounterpart. '''[[DistaffCounterpart Distaff]]''', however, means specifically "female", not simply "gender-switched". This is derived from the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distaff distaff]], a tool used in the traditionally-feminine job of spinning, as well as the inspiration for the female symbol (♀). The male equivalent would be the "SpearCounterpart".[[note]]And yes, the (shield and) spear ''is'' the inspiration for the male symbol (♂).[[/note]]
* '''[[UsefulNotes/{{Judaism}} Bar mitzvah]]''' literally translates to "son of the commandment," i.e. "one to whom the commandments apply", and so it is something that boys ''become''. Therefore you technically do not "have a bar mitzvah", you have a celebration to commemorate becoming a bar mitzvah (similar to the technical definition of "bachelor party"). And as any Jewish parent will tell you, planning one of these parties is like planning a wedding.
** In addition, the plural, unisex way to say ''bat mitzvah'' or ''bar mitzvah'' is ''b'nai mitzvah'' (or ''b'nei mitzvah''); however, because this is both ''plural'' and ''non-gender'', '''no one''' "becomes" a b'nai mitzvah. You can ''go'' to one, as in, "I'm going to my cousins' b'nai mitzvah."
** Also, a bar mitzvah is not when a Jewish boy is circumcised; that is on the eighth day, a bris mila (or b'rit mila, in non-Ashkenazi dialects). The confusion comes from the fact that in Africa, boys are typically circumcised at a much older age. And the word meaning "circumcision" is "mila", not "bris" (which simply means "covenant").
* '''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.
* '''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 literally translates as "womb-fury"). Specifically, the ancient Greeks [[ScienceMarchesOn believed that the uterus could somehow travel 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. The word itself derives from the Greek word for uterus, from which we also get "hysterectomy". It was often treated by [[UnusualEuphemism "pubic massage"]] -- yes, that's what vibrators were invented for. They were used by doctors to induce a "hysterical paroxysm" i.e. orgasm, and the numerous euphemisms permitted the entire thing to be discussed by medical professionals back in Victorian times, as not only was it improper to discuss sexuality, it was thought females didn't even have any.
** As late as the 1940s, hysteria was commonly used to mean, roughly, [[OlderThanTheyThink PMS]]. As late as the 1970's, reprinted house and garden handbooks from the 1940s included '''home remedies for hysteria'''.
* The word '''work''' (as a noun) has many meanings in common usage, including something taking effort to produce, some form of artistic production or a job. However, in physics, 'work' means the amount of energy transferred by a force moving an object. This definition is much less known, and much less used.
** Specifically, work is the force required to move something, integrated over the distance moved. These are very useful units for the engineering of devices, since they are to a degree independent of time and time is possibly the most annoying unit to deal with in design terms (it turns things into dynamic problems). As is probably obvious, expressing energy expenditure without referencing how long it takes to expend the energy isn't really that useful for common usage.
* The distinction between '''amount''' and '''quantity''' (or '''number''') is often ignored. You have an amount of a mass noun such as water or money, and a quantity of a countable noun such as dollars or shoes. The distinction between "less" and "fewer" is related to this; you'd say "less money" but "fewer shoes", which is why the sign at the supermarket aisle ought to read, "Twelve items or fewer," not "Twelve items or less".
** If the supermarket really wanted to flout (not flaunt) the rules (although they'd probably be flaunting them in their heads), it could remove all doubt by saying "Twelve or less items". "Twelve items or less" leaves just enough room for them to wriggle out: the hanging "less" doesn't actually state less what, even though it's heavily implied they mean items.
* You may have a '''family crest''', if you can trace your family tree back to European gentry. But the ''crest'' is only the bit that stands on top of the ''helm'' (like the crest of a jaybird). In most European traditions the essential element is the shield, or ''escutcheon'' (in Germany, at some times, the crest(s) got much more emphasis than the shield; but in Romance-speaking countries crests were relatively rarely displayed at all). The full ''achievement'' may also include a motto and, for a noble, ''supporters'' (a pair of human, animal or monstrous figures standing beside the shield to prop it all up) and perhaps a coronet and ''pavilion'' (a fur-lined robe forming a tent around the whole). The original meaning of ''coat of arms'' was a tunic worn over armor to keep the sun off, which was painted in the same design as the shield, so the word ''coat'' is used for that design or, in the case of a composite shield, each of its ''quarters''.
** Some popular references claim that each ''charge'' (symbol) and ''tincture'' (color) has a specific meaning; and some crackpots say the same for each vowel and consonant in a language. The only thing we can be sure of is that arms often make puns (sometimes obscure) on part of the bearer's name. [[note]]This is called "[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canting_arms canting arms]]" and can be seen (for instance) in the arms of the Spanish region of Castile and León (Castile gets a castle, León gets a lion); the arms of [[UsefulNotes/TheHouseOfWindsor the Queen Mum]] (containing bows and lions, for her maiden name, "Bowes-Lyon"); and the arms of Munich (whose name comes from the Old High German for "by the monks' place" and sure enough the arms depict a monk).[[/note]]
** In Japan, ''crest'' is a fair translation of ''mon'' because the primary emblem '''was''' displayed on helmets as well as elsewhere.
* While '''lay''' is the actual past tense of '''lie''', the former verb is often incorrectly used in place of the latter.
** And the past tense of "lay" is "laid", not "layed". Just as in "getting laid". (The passive participle, in the nonsexy sense, is ''lain''.)
** And if you're going to use the transitive 'lay' (to put down something long or flat in a certain careful manner) reflexively, use a reflexive pronoun or it's wrong. "Go lay down" is bad; "Go lay yourself down" is fine, although its connotations are slightly different from those of "Go lie down".
* The terms '''Internet''' and '''World Wide Web''' are often used interchangeably. The ''Internet'' is the network itself, over which all network protocols operate; the ''Web'' is just one of its applications, the set of servers that use Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP). If you open an instant messaging program or go play an online game, you're using the Internet but not the Web. This has become pedantic in that often the word ''Internet'' is used in place of ''Web'' -- correctly, since a website is necessarily on the Internet. It's much more noticeable when switched around: if someone says ''Web'' or ''World Wide Web'' in reference to anything other than a website, you can expect anyone who understands this distinction to be all over it.
* '''Human''': This is a tough one because, here on Real Earth, several possible definitions all collapse to the same group. The term is widely taken to refer specifically to ''Homo sapiens sapiens'', i.e. "us". However, among the accepted dictionary definitions include any member of the species ''Homo sapiens'', which would also include the now-extinct archaic varies of ''H. sapiens'', such as Neanderthals and ''Homo sapiens idaltu''. Others include the entire genus ''Homo'', picking up more of our ancestors, or even any member of Hominidae capable of speech. Whether species outside our branch of the genetic tree (i.e. sapient aliens, robots, magical beings, future species descended from H. sapiens sapiens, etc.) could be properly called "human" is ''entirely up for debate'': as it hasn't come up yet in the real world, neither linguists nor lawyers have made a canonical decision. As a result, many phrases and idioms use the term "human" in a way that will be incorrect if a decision in one direction or the other is ever made ("Human rights" vs "Human anatomy" for example). '''Person''', particularly in the legal sense, is even more ambiguous.
** The philosophical definition of "man" is "rational (i.e. ''sapient''; see above) animal." This is the way it is used in any context outside of scientifically-rigorous biology. In the genre of space opera, where there are sapient extraterrestrial species that communicate with the humans, the proper term to refer to us would be "Terrans," since [[Franchise/StarTrek Klingons]] / [[Franchise/MassEffect Turians]] / [[Manga/OutlawStar Ctarl-Ctarl]] / etc. are all "man." Occasionally, a slightly different distinction is made, with 'human' referring to only our species, and other sapient lifeforms referred to as a 'person' but not 'human'.
* '''Controversial''' should not be used to describe people, things, or ideas that are merely "shocking" or "in bad taste". The word literally means "likely to provoke dissent" (i.e. '''controversy''') -- and that dissent need not be bitter. That's why "controversial" does not always have to be a "negative" word, even though that's how it tends to be used. Since almost everyone disapproves of child pornography, for example, child pornography is not "controversial". You should use terms such as "scandalous" or "outrageous" instead. (But don't use "uproarious", because that term has incorrectly come to mean "extremely funny.")
* '''Archaic''' does not simply mean old or outdated. It describes a word from an older language being used in a modern language in a specific sense, or something so old as to no longer be in use (for example, steam engine cars are archaic).
* A '''manger''' is a feed trough. The little display with UsefulNotes/{{Jesus}} and Mary and Joseph in the stable can be called a "manger ''scene''": there's generally a manger in it, but the whole thing isn't one.
* '''Fundamentalist''': Denotes somebody who puts a particular emphasis on the basic tenets of a doctrine as opposed to ideologies that might have a basis in that doctrine but are willing to question some basic tenets. It's really more a statement against revisionism than a statement for tradition and bigotry, it just usually ends up that way. A fundamentalist is, strictly speaking, somebody who emphasizes the fundamentals of an ideology, so it's not hard to see how this purist approach could lend itself to extremism.
** Similarly, '''evangelical''', in terms like "evangelical doctrine", just means "practicing evangelism". By that definition, many churches are evangelical, even if they don't consider themselves so and don't have the traits that most people consider "evangelical". Unfortunately this word has lost most of its usefulness by coming to mean the kind of church that still condemns dancing, throws fits about interracial marriage, and steadfastly maintains that the world was created in 7 days 6,000 years ago. (And in case you forgot what evangelism is, it means an emphasis on conversion and recruitment, literally to "spread the good news." In this way, even Hindus and Muslims could technically be evangelical, they just wouldn't use this word.) "Evangelical" also shouldn't be assumed to imply "politically conservative"; most evangelicals were on the political ''left'' until the 20th century, and some still are.
** Also, '''radical''' means "pertaining to the root" (from ''radix'', the Latin word for "root"), not "extreme". Radical movements seek to make radical (i.e. fundamental) changes in basic social structures, or they attempt a return to the "root" of a movement which they feel has diverged from its original purpose. Of course, radical movements are often prone to extremism.
* '''{{Tsundere}}''' originally was a term created on the Internet to designate a character's personality change over time, usually catalyzed by a love interest. However, the term has been expanded to cover characters that have two distinct personality modes, harsh and sweet, whether or not the character actually changes as the story progresses.
** '''{{Yandere}}''', when used to describe males, is often used to describe ''any'' abusive BastardBoyfriend. It originally referred specifically to an obsessive love. [[Franchise/StarWars Anakin Skywalker]] is a yandere for his obsession with trying to save Padmé, ''not'' because he chokes her while DrunkOnTheDarkSide. It's also misused on females to imply a KnifeNut or crazy-murderous girls in general, even if love isn't part of the equation (Such as [[LightNovel/HaruhiSuzumiya Asakura Ryouko]]). Meanwhile, cute, innocent, AxCrazy women (and sometimes men) are CuteAndPsycho, since that does not require an object of affection to be yan over.
** '''{{Kuudere}}''' is often thought to mean "EmotionlessGirl". It's actually more of a "cool" approach to the {{tsundere}} character type. (That is, they may ''appear'' to be emotionless, until one gets to know them)
* A '''[[ConvenientMiscarriage miscarriage]]''' is an early term '''[[GoodGirlsAvoidAbortion abortion]]'''. Both are medical terms for the termination of pregnancy and don't reflect any intent.
** Popularly, a miscarriage is a spontaneous abortion (unintentional), while abortion is a medical procedure performed for the sole purpose of terminating a pregnancy (intentional).
* '''Contemporary''' means ''of the same time''. To use it without a temporal context is to invite the question, "contemporary with what?" If you use it as a synonym for ''modern'', well -- at least please be very careful that no other time, such as the lifetime of J. S. Bach, is mentioned or implied nearby.
** It would be safer to use "present" or "current" if you want to be YouKeepUsingThatWord/VeryPedantic. Technically, J. S. Bach's lifetime happened in the modern period too.
** An exception is with the term 'Contemporary History' which is a defined period between 1945 and the present day.
* Regarding the word '''{{fetish}}''', most people use it in the way it's defined on [[http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/fetish dictionary.com]] as well as in a few other dictionaries. That is, it's something normally unassociated with sex that that causes "habitual sexual arousal" in the observer and isn't something the fetishist necessarily has to have in order to become aroused. On the other hand, other dictionaries, such as [[http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fetish?show=0&t=1294374243 Merriam Webster]], explicitly state that it's something that needs to be present in order to arouse the fetishist. Those that use this definition argue that most people who claim to have a fetish actually have a [[http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/kink kink]] instead, as it's rare for it to be that extreme. All of of this, of course, necessarily postdates the '''original''' use of the word; i.e., an idol or other artifact to which is ascribed supernatural qualities.
** To say that you have a "Native American bear fetish" probably does not mean that you experience sexual arousal at the thought of bears belonging to tribes inhabiting the Americas before Europeans arrived (or that you can only be sexually aroused by [[TheBear a large, hairy, bearded gay man]] descended from one of said tribes). More likely, you have a carving or other artwork done by Native Americans to worship a mystic bear figure. [[NightmareFuel Most likely]].
* Using the word '''[[AbsurdlySpaciousSewer sewer]]''' for storm drainage systems. Sewers carry sewage, everything that goes down the toilet, sink, dishwashing machine and bath or shower. Storm drains carry water that washes up on the street. The two are not the same, even though many writers of fiction and video game designers confuse the two. And even Wiki/TheOtherWiki lists another name for a storm drain in the US as "storm sewer". However, in the UK (or at least in England and Wales) 'sewer' denotes a public drain/channel rather than a private one. It can carry foul water or storm water, or both. This is a statutory definition.
** On the contrary, this use as only for waste water is inaccurate to its original use as "conduit" from the Anglo-French word "sewere."
* To be '''electrocuted''' or to suffer '''electrocution''' is to be outright ''killed'' by an electric shock, not to simply receive one; indeed, the word was coined by Thomas Edison as a portmanteau of "electric" and "execute", after "to westinghouse" failed to catch on (a TakeThat against his AC-inventing rival). But because of the confusion the phrase "electrocuted to death" could be used if you want to emphasize that yes, the person died.
** Similarly, "execute" does not mean to kill but to carry out; The executive branch executes the laws. It also executes capital (death) sentences. Its use to refer to capital punishment is basically a SesquipedalianLoquaciousness version of organized crime using "do" as a euphemism for killing.
* A '''dropkick''' is either kicking someone with both feet at the same time, or dropping a ball and kicking it after it bounces, depending on whether you're talking about professional wrestling or football. It doesn't mean just any kick that makes someone fall down.
** Or, in martial arts, an inverted side kick. (Sometimes also an axe-kick.)
* '''Scrum''' is derived from the words scrimmage or skirmish which mean something to the general effect of "disorganized fighting". In Rugby a scrum is one of the most organized things that can happen during play. The eight (in Rugby Union: six in Rugby League) forwards from each team bind against each other in an extremely organized fashion and perform a sort of reverse tug of war to contest the possession of the ball. The formation is very organized and players deviating from their position within the scrum will result in penalties. One of the most common things a non-rugby sports commentator likes to say is "that's an old fashioned rugby scrum!" when a play turns into chaos and the players pile up on top of each other. The funny thing is, if they took out "rugby" they'd be accurate as the rugby definition of a scrum deviates from the standard "skirmish" route. It's kind of a double subversion.
* '''Apocryphal''' means "of uncertain truth." Something cannot be "probably apocryphal" unless you're admitting you yourself didn't check the facts on its general acceptance; the word implies ''uncertainty'', albeit sufficient uncertainty to reject it as historical fact, but not falsehood per se. One or two contemporary accounts or products could (and very often have) rocket most "apocryphal" events into widespread acceptance.
* The word '''chef''' is widely used to refer to any cook regardless of rank, but it is the shortened version of the French term ''chef de cuisine'', the head or director of a kitchen. The word "chef" comes from the Latin word ''caput'' ("head"), so "head chef" really means "head head" (though, if we want to be true pedants, one might argue the "head" in "head chef" means "top" or "most important" metaphorically). Only the highest ranking cook in the whole kitchen is ''the'' chef.
** This is because most cooks in a professional kitchen are either the ''Sous-Chef'' (second in command, literally Under-Chef), a ''Chef de Partie'' (head of station, or line cook) or assist the Chef de Partie as a ''Commis-Chef'' (literally chef-clerk). Since nearly every position has the word chef in it, it's no wonder it got shortened. \\\
To give an example, Spongebob is both a Fry Chef (as he heads up the frying station) and the Chef de Cuisine (by default). In the episode where Patrick assisted him, Patrick would have been his Commis-Chef (and also Sous Chef by default).
* '''Longswords''' are not '''arming swords''', and '''broadsword''' is not a synonym for either. The typical arming sword have long since been called longswords or broadswords in tabletop games, video games, books, films, and so many other forms of media, but in actuality you could not find bigger differences between the two. A longsword has more in common with a hand-and-a-half bastard sword except longer, having gotten the name due to their length. A broadsword, likewise, is descended from a rapier and boasts the same type of intricate hilt and handle, but with a much broader blade. Worse, now they're starting to become the "normal" term, as people are generally far more familiar with the term of "longsword" or "broadsword" than "arming sword".
* '''[[PlayfulHacker Hackers]]''', as in "those who '''hack'''", is a term for relatively skillful programmers (generally; certain non-programmers may also qualify) who find ways to use hardware or software for things it was not originally intended for (which may or may not be illegal), and who often see themselves as doing a public service by bringing security flaws to public attention. Hackers find offensive the popular use of the term "hacker" in reference to warez groups or malicious intruders, and prefer the word "[[TheCracker cracker]]" for such. The fact remains though, that both terms are essentially arbitrary labels - it's not as though "hacking" means something nicer than "cracking"- and to the vast majority of people hackers means crackers.
** Despite the opinions of the hobbyists and proponents of the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hacker_%28programmer_subculture%29 Hacker Culture]], a given dictionary definition of "Hacker" is one who "attempts to gain unauthorized access to proprietary computer systems" (though that does not necessarily imply malice).
** Note that the original meaning above is still in use in certain cases. One notable use is kernel hacking, as this requires a high degree of programming skill and many members of this group consider themselves to be hackers.
** Hacker is also heavily used in video game culture to define someone that cheats. Very rarely do online video game cheaters use any actual hack. Most people that cheat in games use 3rd party programs that simply alters the game's coding. Hacker is also used to insult other players that are suspected of cheating, even if the accused are not cheating.
** "Hacking" is also used to refer to any form of control of someone's logged-in account or outright gaining access to someone's username and password. Apparently, using someone's computer while they're using the bathroom and firing up their browser to post things under their Website/{{Facebook}} account that is already logged in constitutes hacking.
*** Admittedly a lot of hacking that's actually led to ''charges'' involved similarly mundane things—or calling people up and claiming to be a customer who'd forgotten their password.
* '''Beta''' is often used to refer to a video game in any development stage before it's released. It's actually the "feature complete" stage, just when it's about to be ready for release. It is tested by a (usually) limited audience outside the programming team to find bugs and improve usability. It is not equivalent to a video game only being part way finished. Alpha testing is (as the name suggests) the testing of the unfinished software by the development team prior to the beta release. Gamma or Release Candidate refers software that is finished and ready for official release, barring any major bugs.
* '''Manipulation''' is not inherently insidious. It means "to influence, direct, or control something to one's advantage", which need not be negative or even self-centered, just that it produces a net benefit to you. Dextrous manipulation, for instance, means to use your hands to make an object do what you want it to do. But one way of using the simplified meaning is for categorical opponents of genetic research to insist on referring to the practice as "genetic manipulation" to make it sound desirably sinister.
** Similarly, as {{Narm}}y as it probably sounds to fans of ''LightNovel/HaruhiSuzumiya'', "data manipulation" refers in the real world to [[ArtisticLicenseStatistics misuse of statistics]].
* '''ASCII''' (see [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ASCII Wikipedia]]) is a character-encoding scheme. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Text_User_Interface Text User Interface]] is used a lot in {{Roguelike}}s, and because of that, text-based graphics are often referred to as "ASCII" even if they use a different scheme like EBCDIC or an "extended ASCII"[[note]]The first 128 codes of those schemes are the same as the ASCII ones[[/note]] scheme such as [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_page_437 CP437]] or Unicode.
** Likewise, in the Windows world, "ANSI" is used to refer to [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows-1252 the Windows-1252 encoding]], especially as opposed to "Unicode" (itself actually [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UTF-16 a specific Unicode encoding]]).[[note]]It is said that a function has both ANSI and Unicode versions when one version accepts single-byte character strings ''usually'' in Windows-1252 and the other accepts UTF-16 character strings.[[/note]] It is not actually an ANSI standard.
* The word '''claymore''' does not refer to a specific type of sword. The word is a corruption of the Scots Gaelic phrase ''claidheamh mòr'', which means big sword. It is commonly used to describe both the late medieval two-handed swords, and the 17th- and 18th century scottish basket-hilted broadswords, because both kinds were longer and heavier than the norm for swords at the time.
* '''Otaku'''. In the Western world, this somehow became the word for "anime fan". In Japan, it's a (pejorative) word for geek or someone who's a little too into their hobby (the stereotypical railfan would be a train otaku, for example). The etymology gets muddled too since while it does mean "house", it does not refer to a literal house (as a result of this confusion, people thought the word was a reference to shut-ins) but a figurative word similar to "clan".
* '''Anime''' is Japanese for animation. That's it. There never was a special distinction between anime and other cartoons but in the West, it gets its own category just because the art has certain similarities with each other. Technically, there's no such thing as "anime art" or "anime style". ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons''' or Creator/{{Disney}} would also be called anime in Japan. On a more pedantic note, even other Japanese 2D media (visual novels, manga, light novels, etc.) get pinned under the "anime" umbrella because they share similar media tropes; if a trope happens in one, expect it to be called an "anime" thing regardless of where the trope originated from.
** On a similar note, '''manga''' just means comics. Any comic. However, neither Chinese nor Korean comics consider themselves manga, although they share similar styles. They are respectively '''{{Manhua}}''' and '''{{Manhwa}}'''.
* '''[[LeParkour Parkour]]''' is getting from point A to point B while conserving energy. '''Free-running''' is getting from point A to point B while doing fancy acrobatics.
* In cuisine, an ''' entrée''' is not an appetizer. In traditional French cuisine, the main course was ''le rotí'', which consisted of a roast cut of meat, or a fowl, which was carved at the table, and ''les entrées'' were all courses eaten before ''le rotí''. Very few restaurants, even in France, serve ''rotí''-style main courses nowadays, but the tradition of calling the other dishes entrées remains.
** Note: This only applies to American English. ''Entrée'' is the French term for "the dish before the main dish" (while an "appetizer" is an "apéritif"), and Commonwealth English follows modern French usage.
* '''Isekai''' literally means "another world", as in the tropes TrappedInAnotherWorld or ReincarnateInAnotherWorld, whether be an AlternateUniverse, inside the world of media, or on a different planet. Thanks to the boom of fantasy media featuring the trope the 2010s, the term often gets used to mean "trapped in a fantasy world", or just plain "fantasy world" (implying the world is the "other" because it's different from ours).
* '''Isotope'''. The proper term for its common use is '''nuclide''' -- that is, a substance with a fixed number of protons and neutrons. '''Isotopes''' are two or more substances with the same number of protons and different numbers of neutrons -- that is, the difference is like between a ''boy'' and a ''brother'' -- the latter can only be used as a comparative to something else.
* '''Queer''''s original and proper meaning is 'strange' or 'suspicious', but over time it has evolved - or devolved - to mean the same thing that 'gay' now means, 'homosexual'. It is used in other contexts to refer to other kinds of abnormal sexualities and gender types (as in "New Queer Cinema").
** On a related note, the word '''abnormal''' itself is often negative, but it originally just meant "deviating from the norm". So referring to queer people as abnormal is true from an etymological standpoint, but likely to cause offense. A safer word to use here would be '''atypical'''.
* '''Enormity''' is traditionally defined along the lines of "The great or extreme scale, seriousness, or extent of something ''generally considered to be morally wrong''." It does ''not'' simply mean "seriousness", and it certainly doesn't just mean "big." For example, "[[VomitingCop The policeman grew nauseous as he realized the]] [[MoralEventHorizon enormity of the crime]]" is correct. "The crowd stood in awe at the enormity of the tower" is not, unless the tower is somehow inherently evil.
** However, ''[[http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/enormous enormous]]'' lost the meaning of evilness and nowadays just means "very big". [[http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/enormity Some authorities say]] the same thing happened to "enormity"; languages change.
** Speaking of errors this page likes to point out: the policeman may have grown nauseated (stricken with nausea), but probably not nauseous (capable of causing nausea).
** Though a policeman becoming nauseated and vomiting [[VomitChainReaction could cause nausea in other people]], meaning the policeman would have become nauseous as well as nauseated.
* A '''StatuteOfLimitations''' is a law which lays down how much time you have to bring a civil action, or for there to be a criminal prosecution. It is not the time period itself. When people say "the statute of limitations is about to expire", this makes no sense unless the law itself is about to get turfed with a sunset clause. One of the limitation periods that the statute lays down might be expiring, though. Only moderately pedantic, though, as "the statute of limitations is about to expire on that" is less passive than "that is about to expire under the statute of limitations", so some style guides might prefer the former while acknowledging the inaccuracy. Indeed, within the legal profession, "the statute of limitations has run/passed" is not only perfectly valid, but is preferred usage (in the US at least) when talking about time-barred actions. (In informal legal usage, lawyers will usually abbreviate it and say the action is [=SOLed=]--meaning not only "statute of limitations" but also "[[SophisticatedAsHell shit outta luck]].")
** ''Statue'' Of Limitations is simply a spelling error. [[note]]unless referring to an actual statue, perhaps an antithesis to the US Art/StatueOfLiberty[[/note]]
* '''Socialism''' refers to an economic system wherein the "means of production" are owned or managed in common, to some degree or other. '''Communism''' originally meant "revolutionary socialism" in general, but since Karl Marx's time, it has almost always been used to identify adherents to Marx's theories, or of his and his successors (such as Lenin, Trotsky, Stalin, or Mao).
** As with all such terms, there's a wide range in how they're used in practice. Policy positions that might be called "socialist" in one country would not be seen that way in another.[[note]]For example, a Canadian-style health care system--where hospitals are privately run, but all people's health insurance is provided by the government--would be considered "socialized medicine" by the standards of the US, but not by the standards of the UK, where hospital employees work directly for a government agency.[[/note]] And any move towards increased common control over any industry could be called a move ''toward'' socialism (by its supporters if the term "socialism" is popular, by its opponents if the term is unpopular).
** The terms are also used differently in specialized areas. In Marxist theory, for example, "communism" refers to the end state of socialism, in which production is so abundant that neither government nor money is needed. "Communist" governments, by their own self-understanding, did not govern "communist" countries, but rather governed ''socialist'' countries that (it was believed) would progress ''towards'' communism.
* If you're talking about whether two facts are in accord, you might ask whether they "jibe with" each other. ("jibe" is a nautical term.) You wouldn't ask whether they ''jive'' with each other, unless you're asking whether they're grooving to that funky music.
* '''Casual''', by its original definition, meant irregular or occasionally, which fits well with a person that does something every now and then instead of doing it regularly. Nowadays, people use casual, in terms of video games or other forms of entertainment activity, as an insult towards people that do not dedicate their time to an activity and even many video games have begun to use casual to mean "easy".
* '''Gimmick''' originally meant something that is designed to draw in attraction and amusement. People today now use gimmick as way of saying [[Administrivia/ComplainingAboutShowsYouDontLike "this has a gimmick, therefore, it sucks."]] While there can be misuse of gimmicks that make it bad overall, most people that slam something for being gimmicky or relying on a gimmick do so ''because'' there's a gimmick and not because the gimmick itself was bad.
* '''Rape''' means to commit sexual intercourse on a person who either did not legally consent (as in, they said no) or ''could'' not legally consent to the act (as in, they were drunk, asleep or JailBait), or to plunder or raze a country in a violent manner. For centuries the word "rape" commonly meant "take by force" and could be applied to both people and objects (whence came "The Rape of the Sabine Women" and Alexander Pope's "The Rape of the Lock"). People now use rape to describe someone utterly destroying another person in a game, despite the fact that there's no sexual activity involved at all (the usage is entirely figurative here, but still laced with UnfortunateImplications).
** The "plunder and raze" definition, while still correct, is rarely used these days. It's still recognizable, however, in "Rape of Nanjing".
* '''Animation''' is not just a filming style involving showing progressive drawings at a fast pace to simulate movement. It is ''anything'' which can be described as "lively, vibrant, or capable of movement". Only moderately pedantic because the old use is still remembered, especially in the antonym "inanimate", but confusion still tends to arise when speaking of things like "[[OurZombiesAreDifferent animated corpses]]".
* '''Pristine''' is typically used by most people to simply mean "clean," as opposed to the word's actual meaning which is "a thing which is virtually unchanged from its original form." In other words, a dirty hunk of raw hematite ore fresh out of the ground is "pristine" but if you smelt it into a geometrically perfect iron bar and polish it up really nice then it is no longer pristine at all. This one is moderately pedantic because at this point most people seem to have forgotten the word's actual meaning, but it's not completely pedantic because this meaning is definitely worth keeping; we already have more than enough words that mean "clean" (for example, "clean") but very few words that mean the same thing as "pristine."
** If "pristine" is supposed to mean "unchanged from the original" but many people have stopped using it that way, [[{{Irony}} does that mean the word pristine is no longer pristine]]?
* '''Literal''' is used often for emphatic filler, regardless of whether the situation described is a concrete demonstration of an expression that is meant allegorically or whether the term has both concrete and allegorical meanings for the definition to apply to. Examples:
** ''He literally has no shoes!'' - If you mean he's in possession of no shoes, on his feet or elsewhere, that's as concrete as it gets. If there's a metaphorical meaning 'without shoes' signifies, it's not a commonly accepted one.
** ''They literally fell in love!'' - 'Love' is an abstract, so they can't land in any literal love. Did gravity literally yank them down into an emotional state of mutual attraction and affection?
* '''Cryogenics''' is a branch of physics dealing with the production of extremely cold temperatures and the way that certain materials react within those temperatures. It's often mistakenly used in place of '''cryonics''', the practice of freezing organic tissue to prevent it from decaying.
* '''Osmosis''' is the process by which water moves through a semi-permeable membrane[[note]]Something the solvent can pass through, but not the solute.[[/note]] from a highly concentrated solution to a lower concentrated one. Because plants use this process to absorb water, it's sometimes used to describe anything being absorbed.
** In cases where a substance other than water moves through such a membrane, the word "diffusion" is more appropriate.
** However, in some situations, such as a plant absorbing minerals, the correct term is actually 'active transport'. It all depends on whether the movement of the substance requires energy or not.
* '''Tempering''' is a word often used to denote process of making something harder, literally or figuratively (e.g. 'tempering courage in the heat of battle'). Metals and alloys are hardened in the process called hardening and consisting of heating the object to high temperature where the metal is malleable and then quickly quenching it. Tempering is a process or heating in relatively low temperatures (~500 F for steel) for a longer period of time to make the object slightly softer but way less brittle and more elastic.
** Related to this is the idiom of "losing one's temper", which means that a person has lost some amount of self-control, usually in a fit of anger. However, when someone says "he has a temper" or "he has quite the temper", it's meant to imply that the person frequently "breaks", which is the exact opposite of what the phrase actually means. Saying "he has a bad temper" would be more correct.
* '''White''' (the common racial term) is one of those words that is universally employed but that nobody has been able to define with total accuracy. If you stopped people on the street and asked them what, exactly, made a person "white", you wouldn't be very successful. Notwithstanding those people who would look at you like you were crazy and hit you with a MathematiciansAnswer [[ShapedLikeItself ("You're 'white' if you're a white person!")]], you'd be bound to get one of three common "definitions", each of which is fallacious.
** Most people would probably say "a person with light skin." Really? That will come as a shock to the many Japanese, Koreans, North Chinese, and Tungus and Manchu peoples who sometimes turn up fairer-skinned than most Europeans. And how, then, do you explain the light-complexioned Arabs (who, having Semitic features, are technically of African stock) of the more northerly parts of the Middle East? Or albinos, who can be of any race but are ''always'' lacking pigmentation?
** Those who respond in a more pedantic way might say "a person displaying [[FacialProfiling Caucasoid facial features]] instead of Mongoloid [[note]] here meaning "looking like a Mongolian", ''not'' "suffering from Down's Syndrome" [[/note]] or Negroid ones." Trouble is, that category would include most of the indigenous peoples of India, who are typically light-red- or brown-skinned, and in the tropical south can have complexions as black as the night. And then, on the other hand, you have light-to-medium-colored Ashkenazi Jews with their decidedly un-Aryan "hooked noses"; or part-Cherokee American "whites", who display the telltale Amerindian curling incisors and elevated cheekbones.
** People for whom "white = European" would probably respond with something along the lines of "a member of any ethnic group claiming political representation or national sovereignty in Europe." Well, okay...but Eurasia is tectonically one big continent, so where do Europeans start becoming Asians? Historically, Eastern Europe has been said to end at the Ural Mountains in the north, in the Caucasus region (just beyond Ukraine) in the center, and at the Strait of Bosporus in Turkey in the south; but people's physical features do not [[NoOntologicalInertia automatically shift at these borders]]. And even within the generally accepted boundaries of Europe, what about the Finns, Lapps [[note]] politically correct term: ''Sami'' [[/note]] , Estonians, and Hungarians - all of them Uralic peoples, and thus of Asian origin (and occasionally displaying subtle Asian facial markers), and in fact were at one time prohibited from living in certain neighborhoods in the United States ''because they were deemed not white''? What about the Gypsies [[note]] politically correct term: ''Roma'' [[/note]], who are usually considered nonwhite but were living as naturalized Europeans long before the modern borders of their host countries were set? What about Bulgarians, who are genetically ''half-Turkish''? And on and on and on...
** For all of the above reasons, modern-day anthropologists tend to avoid using the word "white" unless it is spoken or written with caveats, preferring the much less racialist terms "European" or (for North Americans and Australasians) "Neo-European." Otherwise, they would have to constantly waste time explaining "whiteness" with the convoluted definition of "light-skinned people genetically linked to the westernmost part of Eurasia who are not Uralic, Roma, Bulgarian, etc." Perhaps "white" will one day disappear from the layperson's vocabulary as well, if its use becomes too controversial and/or people come to believe that if it is wrong to use "yellow" or "red" as colorist terms, then "white" and "black" shouldn't be used either.
* '''Epic''' refers to "epic poetry," which means narratives that are heroic, majestic, or impressively great. Calling something "epic" is to compare it to the scale of something from an epic narrative ... Which is meaningless if one doesn't know about epic narratives. Since internet culture uses this word to describe ''anything'' that is remotely good, that underscores how meaningless it's become. (Of course, ''great'', ''wonderful'', ''awesome'', and ''excellent'' have long been similarly misused, so this is par for the course.)
** It's gotten to the point that there are now [[http://stopsay.in/epic backlash sites]] and [[http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Word-Epic-is-Overused/170782214724 entire groups]] against its misuse.
* In archery, one does not '''fire''' or '''shoot''' an arrow, one '''looses''' an arrow.
* A '''nymphomaniac''' is specifically a sexually compulsive ''woman''. The male equivalent of nymphomania is ''satyromania'', both respectively taking their names from notoriously randy all female and all male Greek mythological creatures.
* For the most part, a '''mime''' means basically the same today as it did 2,000 years ago - an actor who performs silently. However, back then it did ''not'' mean "a silent clown [[WhiteMaskOfDoom with a blank white face"]]; that sense came from the French theatrical clown Pierrot, who was originally ''not'' silent. And the original Greco-Roman mime performances were not totally devoid of sound; they were more like ballet, with the actors dancing or making similar stylized movements to the accompaniment of music, and often also a chanting chorus narrating some kind of story. Most importantly, the original mimes were ''not'' clowns, not always supposed to be funny. They also did not wear makeup, but grotesque, oversized masks that made them appear inhuman (the "masked humanoid" sense survives in many traditional Asian forms of drama, such as the ''kathakali'' performances of southern India, although modern-day ''kathakali'' actors do not wear masks ''per se'', but [[UncannyValleyMakeup layers of thick-crusted cream makeup that simulate a mask and can be difficult to remove after a performance]]).
* The use of '''Gothic''' to mean "dark and spooky" dates only to the late eighteenth century; the word originally was not supposed to conjure up ghost stories, let alone the punk, heavy metal, and emo genres of music. On the contrary, "Gothic" architecture first appeared in northern France in the twelfth century (in the town of Chartres, specifically), and - paradoxically enough - was originally conceived to allow stained-glass windows in church to admit more natural ''light''. Earlier than that, the Goths were an ethnic group: a people living in eastern Europe and speaking a language distantly related to German; they even had their own alphabet for a time.
** The use of "Gothic" to refer to Creator/TimBurton and/or Batman also merits discussion. Burton is ''not'' truly Gothic; if he were, his movies would be completely inappropriate for children and might even come close to being banned in American markets, for Gothic literature was the hardcore pornography of its time, with plenty of torture and sexual perversion. Burton is more of a satirical post-modernist with a BlackComedy streak. And to call Batman "Gothic" is even further from the older definition: the phrase "Gothic hero" is an oxymoron, since Gothic characters are always villainous at worst and (to some extent) sexually perverse at best, neither of which can be applied to Batman (and lest we forget, the original Gothic protagonist, in [[Creator/JohnMilton Milton's]] ''Literature/ParadiseLost'', was Satan himself!); Batman is closer to an "existentialist" (an adherent of the philosophy of Jean-Paul Sartre, and less directly Creator/AynRand and Nietzsche) - a similarly dark worldview, but one in which heroism is possible.
* '''Emo''': On that note, emo does not automatically mean anything angsty or brooding. Rather it originated from a genre of music characterized by expressive lyrics both positive and negative. Unfortunately thanks to the EmoTeen stereotype, the word often gets tossed around to denote {{Wangst}}y and/or excessive brooding, and can even lead to UnfortunateImplications when used to describe people (usually fictional characters with a DarkAndTroubledPast) that suffer from legitimate mental health issues such as depression.
* '''Epicenter''' literally means "the point ground above the center". It's used specifically for earthquakes--the center of an earthquake is somewhere underground, so the epicenter is the point on the ground directly above the earthquake's center. But because people always heard the word in connection with earthquakes, it's come to have the common meaning "center of something very big and important".
** Similarly, '''ground zero''' literally means "place on the ground below an explosion"--since atomic bombs are usually set to go off in the air for maximum destruction, "ground zero" would be the spot directly below where the bomb went off. But it has come to mean "center of devastation". (During the 90s, the term was often used interchangeably with "square one" to mean "starting point"--as in, "We're going to have to go back to ground zero and start over". But after the 9/11 attacks, when "ground zero" was commonly used to refer to the destroyed World Trade Center site, the term shifted back to something closer to the original meaning.)
* '''Pure wrestling''' normally refers to a game or contest where the participants will only use grappling techniques designed to control and move each other to a desired position. Only in the context of ProfessionalWrestling would it be appropriate to describe matches that make use of chokes, bone breaking, ligament snapping and ''kicks'' as "pure wrestling".
* The large majority of '''sport'''ing industries are also in the business of '''entertainment'''. Only in professional wrestling does "sports entertainment" mean someone cares more about entertaining than looking like a sport instead of sporting event people pay to watch.
* '''Sacred''', '''sanctified''', and other variations of the word do not mean "good". The term "sacred" has two major accepted meanings by religious scholars, neither of which has the same meaning as "good."
** 1. '''Set apart''', usually in regards to land which is set apart for some special (usually religious, but not always) use and considered to be inviolable. So land set aside for the building of a temple or cemetery is sacred, but technically so is land set aside for a national park. It can also refer to any other thing or belief which is considered inviolable. For example, someone holding their marriage sacred.
** 2. '''The spiritual world''' and everything that exists within it. While the Sacrum ''does'' include Heaven and is considered to be a superior and more pure plane of existence, it does also include Hell, Purgatory, and all those who dwell within.
*** Related, '''profane''' refers to '''the non-spiritual, or material world''' and everything which exists within it - Earth, the Sun, humanity, animals, plants... basically everything which exists within our perceivable reality. It does not mean "evil" or "corrupt" or "blasphemous." The devil and demons are ''certainly'' not profane, since as established, they exist within the Sacrum.
* A '''prototype''' is commonly used to refer to "an experimental early version designed to test what can and cannot be fit into a furbished model". Bonus points for including [[SuperPrototype more powerful versions of features the production model lacks]]. In actual engineering, this is the definition of a ''Concept Model'' (or Concept Car, as the most famous examples are from the automobile industry) while a real prototype is supposed to be as close to the final production model as possible.
* '''Venerable'''. These days, the word has come to mean "old", but that's not the correct definition. Venerable (literally, "worthy of veneration") refers to something that has achieved respect through age, wisdom ''or'' character. So, it's entirely possible for an 18 year old boy to be "venerable" if he shows great character and wisdom, but these days, you'd probably get a funny look from both the person you're speaking to ''and'' the boy if you call him that.
** The Catholic Church uses the term in its original sense; when they refer to (for example) the "venerable Fulton Sheen", they are saying that they're fairly sure Archbishop Sheen lived a life of heroic virtue (and is therefore worthy of veneration), but they aren't (yet) prepared to say with certainty that Sheen is a saint.
* '''Mail''' is often used as a synonym of 'armour' (e.g. 'plate mail', 'scale mail') but this is an old name for a chain armour (only!) that comes from French word ''maille'' meaning 'chain'. This means that 'chainmail', although not an error per se, is a pleonasm at best. The latter word has been first used by sir Walter Scott and so the common misuse began. Use of the word 'mail' when referring to any kind of armour other than chain is incorrect.
* '''Shall''' and '''will''', the two auxiliaries used to form the future tense, are not completely interchangeable with each other. The traditional distinction is that to express the plain future, one uses ''shall'' with the first person and ''will'' with the second and third persons. But to express one's volition, one uses ''will'' with the first person and ''shall'' with the second and third persons. Thus, "I shall die" is a statement about the speaker's opinion of his fate, whereas "I will die" is a statement about the speaker's determination to die. Another example: "Bob will lose the game" is a statement about the speaker's opinion of whether Bob will win the game, whereas "Bob shall lose the game" is a statement about the speaker's determination to ensure Bob's losing the game.
* '''Leonardo da Vinci'''. Common usage refers to his works as "da Vincis" as though it were his last name, but Vinci is a location; Leonardo da Vinci literally translates to "Leonardo of Vinci." It's like saying something by Jerry of New York is created by "of New York." His full name was '''Leondaro di ser Piero da Vinci''' (Leonardo, son of Piero, from Vinci.)
* '''Arithmetic''' is not synonymous with '''Mathematics''' as it only covers the basic 4 operations {addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.
* '''Trap''' has had its use hotly debated about over the years. Among Anime/Manga consumers, the term originally meant a boy of the OtokonokoGenre variety, i.e. a very convincing crossdressing male. Over time it devolved into simply [[DudeLooksLikeALady any male that looks effeminate enough]] regardless of what clothing he's wearing, or more peculiarly as a derogatory slur/ alternate nickname towards {{Transgender}} people. Its DistaffCounterpart term "reverse trap" is treated much the same way, however it also gets used for short haired girls or {{Tomboy}}s regardless of presentation.
* '''Triggered''' is when someone who suffered a traumatic event has said event replay in their minds when something "triggers" that specific memory. While having someone triggered generally does get them upset, it does not apply to people who are simply upset or angry at something that just bothers them (such as getting angry that their takeout order was wrong).
* '''Dice''' is the plural form of the word 'die' (as in, a little cube with dots on), however, it's used by many people as the singular form. For example, someone might say, 'I have a dice' which is equivalent to them saying something like 'I have a hamsters'. It gets ridiculous when people try and find a plural form of 'dice' and come up with the word 'dices', which actually means 'chops into small cubes'.
** "Dice" as a verb can also mean "to play dice games with", so "dices" can also be the third person present form of that verb (this is where the phrase "dicing with Death" comes from).
* No species of bat is blind and many species have vision which is as good as, if not better than, a human's, so someone who is as '''blind as a bat''' may actually have very good eyesight.
* '''Weight''' is a force and is measured in newtons, while '''mass''' is a property of an object which determines the magnitude of this force, and is measured in grams. An object on the moon would weigh less than it would on Earth due to the difference in gravity, but its mass would remain constant.
* A '''pterosaur''' is not a '''dinosaur''', though they are related. Technically, the term 'dinosaur' only refers to reptiles from the groups Ornithischia and Saurischia, which excludes flying reptiles like pterosaurs as well as marine reptiles such as ichthyosaurs, plesiosaurs, and mosasaurs.
* Terms '''commune''' and '''collective''' are often interchangeable and making a distinction between the two is sometimes portrayed as a case of InsistentTerminology. In reality they are two completely different forms of organization. In commune, property is collective, so it belongs to the organization rather than individuals. In collective, things are also shared but they remain personal property of respective individuals. Also, traditionally, 'commune' means groups that is living together while 'collective' refers to people who live separately and only work together using shared means to achieve their goals.
* '''Detonation''' is often used to describe the combustion of any explosive, but technically only refers to the combustion of high explosives, which produce shock waves which travel faster than the speed of sound. '''Deflagration''' is the proper term used to describe the combustion of low explosives, which produce a flame front which travels much more slowly than the speed of sound.
* If an outcome of a scenario is '''likely''', that isn't necessarily the same thing as it being '''probable'''. If it's "likely", that just means that one can reasonably predict that it might occur. If it's "probable", then one can reasonably predict that it might occur based on principles of '''probability''', a branch of mathematics that uses numbers to weigh multiple possible scenarios against one another. Probability assumes that (all other things being equal) outcomes are more likely if there are a greater number of opportunities for them to occur.[[note]] When rolling a pair of dice, for example, it's more probable that one will roll certain numbers if there are more combinations that will result in those numbers.[[/note]] Many events are "likely" for reasons that can't necessarily be expressed mathematically, but an event isn't "probable" ''unless'' its likelihood can be expressed mathematically.
* The term '''UsefulNotes/IvyLeague''' is commonly used to refer to the eight private universities in the Northeastern United States that are generally considered the country's most prestigious academic institutions. [[note]] Harvard University in Massachusetts, Columbia University in New York City, Cornell University in upstate New York, Princeton University in New Jersey, Yale University in Connecticut, Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, Brown University in Rhode Island, and the University of Pennsylvania in...[[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Pennsylvania]].[[/note]] Officially, though, it's a sports term that specifically refers to the collegiate athletic conference that those schools compete in. And before it came to have connotations of elitism and academic excellence, "Ivy League" was a fairly neutral grouping; those eight schools just happened to compete in the same conference because they're in the same geographic region. These days, though, the term has been widely adopted as a general term for the schools, and nearly ''everybody'' recognizes it as such.
* '''{{Netorare}}''' and its counterpart ''netori'' get subjected to this treatment by western internet fans. Originally referring to a specific scenario of [[YourCheatingHeart cheating]] (that is to say, a woman/man being stolen away by another for shame and sexual titilation), it since evolved into a catch all term for when a character's crush doesn't return their feelings and dates someone else, no relationship or shame required. It also sees usage when a character first starts out liking another, but falls out of love with them for whatever reason and looks to another.
** At this point, it’s pretty clear that when the name of an anime genre is adopted by Western fans, it ''will'' be misused. No exceptions.
* '''Miracle''' is often misused to mean a really lucky event, typically one so lucky it seems like it must be magical. It actually means an event that's ''impossible'' without breaking the laws of nature/reality (a literal DeusExMachina, if you will.) Thus, if you fall out of an airplane without a parachute and land just right so you are unharmed, you're just really lucky. If, however, you survive due to God teleporting you to safety or sending an angel to catch you, that's a miracle.
* Despite most people treating '''Coronavirus''' as the name of the specific virus involved in the international outbreak of 2020, that's actually just the ''class'' of virus it belongs to -- in other words, it's not specifically named "Coronavirus", it just happens to be ''a'' coronavirus. Unfortunately the actual name is the rather less snappy '''Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2''' or [=SARS-CoV-2=] for short. Despite SARS being the familiar name for another coronavirus, the name SARS 2 hasn't caught on.
* '''Bourgeoisie''', in the Marxist sense, is sometimes simply used as a fancy synonym for rich people. It actually is a bit more complicated: the bourgeoisie are the people in charge of the means of production (i.e the people in control of factories and the like.) One can be rich without be a member of the bourgeoisie, as some rich people [[IdleRich don't actually make anything.]]
* '''Semester''' is sometimes used for schools that have three school terms, such as those in Japan(for example, in ''[[{{VideoGame/Persona 5}} Persona 5 Royal]]'', the part from January to February that is exclusive to [[UpdatedRerelease Royal]] is called the "Third Semester"), even though the word refers to a half-year term, and a more appropriate term would be ''trimester.''
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** This is because most cooks in a professional kitchen are either the ''Sous-Chef'' (second in command, literally Under-Chef), a ''Chef de Partie'' (head of station, or line cook) or assist the Chef de Partie as a ''Commis-Chef'' (literally chef-clerk). Since nearly every position has the word chef in it, it's no wonder it got shortened.

** This is because most cooks in a professional kitchen are either the Sous-Chef (second in command, literally Under-Chef), a ''Chef de Partie'' (head of station, or line cook) or serve under one of them and thus a''Commis-Chef'' (literally chef-clerk). To give an example, Spongebob is both a Fry Chef (as he grills the burgers) and the Chef de Cuisine (by default). In the episode where Patrick assisted him, Patrick would have been his Commis-Chef (and also Sous Chef by default).

* '''Trap''' has had its use hotly debated about over the years. Among Anime/Manga consumers, the term originally meant a boy of the OtokonokoGenre variety, i.e. a very convincing crossdressing male. Over time it devolved into simply [[DudeLooksLikeALady any male that looks effeminate enough]] regardless of what clothing he's wearing, or more peculiarly as a derogatory slur towards {{Transgender}} people. Its DistaffCounterpart term "reverse trap" is treated much the same way, however it also gets used for short haired girls or {{Tomboy}}s regardless of presentation.

* '''Regime''' or '''[[GratuitousFrench Régime]]''' simply refers to ''any'' government or political administration: the United States (a representative democratic republic) and North Korea (an odd mix of a ''de facto'' absolute monarchy, a totalitarian police state, and a pharaonic cult) are both regimes. In general usage, it is now mostly used to refer only to tyrannical, authoritarian, or repressive governments; political scholars have other definitions. In political theory it continues to mean "any form of government", and in international relations, it has come to mean "any political order of any kind, even if it isn't the government of a state" (e.g. "arms-control regime",[[note]]so the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, the Chemical Weapons Convention, and other treaties together form the "global arms-control regime"[[/note]] "river-management regime",[[note]]e.g. the various interrelated international agencies designed to manage the Danube from various angles: trade, environment, water supply, tourism...[[/note]] "regional security regime",[[note]]For instance, UsefulNotes/{{NATO}} and the various bilateral and multilateral security arrangements between the US, Canada, and the countries of Western Europe together make the North Atlantic/Western European regional security regime[[/note]] etc.)--this latter use of "regime" is the focus of "[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regime_theory regime theory]]," one of the more important movements in international relations since the late 1990s.

* '''Regime''' or '''[[GratuitousFrench Régime]]''' simply refers to any and all governments or political administrations ruling over a state, regardless of their ideological orientation or political system. Both the United States (a representative democratic republic) and North Korea (an odd mix of a ''de facto'' absolute monarchy, a totalitarian police state, and a pharaonic cult) are led by regimes. In general usage, it is now mostly used to refer only to tyrannical, authoritarian, or repressive governments; political scholars have other definitions. In political theory it continues to mean "any form of government", and in international relations, it has come to mean "any political order of any kind, even if it isn't the government of a state" (e.g. "arms-control regime",[[note]]so the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, the Chemical Weapons Convention, and other treaties together form the "global arms-control regime"[[/note]] "river-management regime",[[note]]e.g. the various interrelated international agencies designed to manage the Danube from various angles: trade, environment, water supply, tourism...[[/note]] "regional security regime",[[note]]For instance, UsefulNotes/{{NATO}} and the various bilateral and multilateral security arrangements between the US, Canada, and the countries of Western Europe together make the North Atlantic/Western European regional security regime[[/note]] etc.)--this latter use of "regime" is the focus of "[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regime_theory regime theory]]," one of the more important movements in international relations since the late 1990s.

* '''Miracle''' is often misused to mean a really lucky event, typically one so lucky it seems like it must be magical. It actually means an event that's ''impossible'' without breaking the laws of nature/reality (a literal DeusExMachina, if you will.) Thus, if you fall out of an airplane without a parachute and land just right so you are unharmed, your just really lucky. If, however, you survive due to God teleporting you to safety or sending an angel to catch you, that's a miracle.

** '''{{Yandere}}''', when used to describe males, is often used to describe ''any'' abusive BastardBoyfriend. It originally referred specifically to an obsessive love. [[StarWars Anakin Skywalker]] is a yandere for his obsession with trying to save Padmé, ''not'' because he chokes her while DrunkOnTheDarkSide. It's also misused on females to imply a KnifeNut or crazy-murderous girls in general, even if love isn't part of the equation (Such as [[LightNovel/HaruhiSuzumiya Asakura Ryouko]]). Meanwhile, cute, innocent, AxCrazy women (and sometimes men) are CuteAndPsycho, since that does not require an object of affection to be yan over.

* '''Tempering''' is a word often used to denote process of making something harder, literally or figuratively (e.g. 'tempering courage in the heat of battle'). Metals and alloys are hardened in the process called [[CaptainObvious hardening]] and consisting of heating the object to high temperature where the metal is malleable and then quickly quenching it. Tempering is a process or heating in relatively low temperatures (~500 F for steel) for a longer period of time to make the object slightly softer but way less brittle and more elastic.