History YouKeepUsingThatWord / ModeratelyPedantic

* The distinction between '''amount''' and '''quantity''' 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".
*** Counterpoint: If your cart contains a set of items, whereby the number of items contained within the set is "< or = to 12", that is, "less than or equal to twelve" then you may use the express lane.
* '''Immolate''' means '''sacrifice'''. When a monk lights himself on fire to protest a war, he is engaging in "self-immolation" because he is killing himself to make a point, ''not'' because he is setting himself on fire.

** The root meaning was to sprinkle ''meal'' on the victim, in preparation. Huh (we learn something every day).

** Mostly true. But there are games, instant-messaging services, and e-mail programs with web-based front ends, even though all three concepts predated the Web.
** Technically, the World Wide Web refers to all websites. A website is 'one or more HTML documents linked to each other', and the World Wide Web is simply 'all websites accessible world wide'. There are things that are other things that use HTTP, like remote storage using WebDAV, or Shoutcast music streaming, or even online application updates, or servers exchanging encoded information about widgets prices. These are not 'websites' in any meaningful sense, and hence are not part of the World Wide Web, even though they use HTTP. (And it's worth noting that technically websites can be accessed via other protocols like ftp, and even gopher. There are 'websites' on ftp servers out there. Whether or not they should be counted as part of the WWW is up for debate but there are microscopically small number anyway.)

* '''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. It's not hard to see how this purist approach could lend itself to extremism, however.

** '''{{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 mis-used 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]]).
*** Cute, innocent, AxCrazy women (and sometimes men) are {{Yangire}}.

* 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.
** On the other hand, TheOtherWiki lists another name for a storm drain in the US as "storm sewer".

* A '''Libertarian''' is an Anarchist, 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.
** Yes and no, but its very strongly influenced by context. In a vacuum libertarian shares most of the anarchist values such 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.
*** As at least some people who would be rightly called Anarchists are. The key difference between neo-Libertarianism and Anarchism can probably be described in their approach to questions of economics than in their approach to democracy.

** '''Retarded''' 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.
*** Although, unlike the others, it is still seen as offensive, while it would take someone ''very'' touchy to get annoyed at "lame" or "stupid". [[hottip:*: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.]]
*** Technically, retarded simply means hindered or slowed down. Mental retardation meant slowed or reduced mental development. Compare a retarded bomb, which is one that is made to fall slower than normal, and a dumb bomb, which is one that falls without guidance.
** "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.
**** ''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.)
* '''To beg the question''' is to [[YouFailLogicForever 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.").
** Considering that 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.
** It implies something like "to request that one's opponent concede the initial point".

* '''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'); however, all but the [[AWorldwidePunomenon 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.
** Many people seem to also be under the misimpression that "penultimate" means something along the lines of "even more ultimate", which doesn't even make sense.

* '''Anarchy''' literally means "no government" or "without a ruler". 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.
** It is a philosophy that is extremely idealistic and optimistic, believing that RousseauWasRight, since they think that everyone can coexist peacefully with only moral obligations and loose social contracts to bind them.
*** [[DidNotDoTheResearch Not according to theorists of the philosophy]], but those theorists [[WeAREStrugglingTogether didn't always agree anyway]]: "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.
**** Anarchists, at least some of them, believe not that it will be a world without a violence, but the level of violence will be lower in comparison with the state presence (for example, when "[[{{Discworld}} people elects representatives for given terms who promise they will not betray the public interest at every step]]").

*** Eh... "species" is well-defined for ''animals''. Plants are ''very'' capable of interbreeding, polymorphing, reproducing asexually, and otherwise doing odd things with their genetics that turn the biological species concept completely upside-down. Botanists ''still'' can't agree over what should be used to distinguish one species from another.
*** Actually, "species" is complicated even with animals. Because of ring species(a ring species is a connected series of neighboring populations, each of which can interbreed with closely sited related populations, but for which there exist at least two "end" populations in the series, which are too distantly related to interbreed) it's not anywhere near simple and consistent.
** Historically, the word "race" has been used to mean anything from all humanity to a single family line. In ''BarryLyndon'', 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 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.
** 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.

* '''Melee''' means a confusing, chaotic hand-to-hand fight (possibly free-for-all). In most video games 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.

*** In particular, the full title of Darwin'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.

** Speaking of Aryans, the Nazis had a very, ah, ''unusual'' (read: arbitrary) definition of Aryan. Many Germans liked Karl May 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.

* '''Anarchy''' literally means "no government" or "without a ruler". 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 attributed to anarchists.

*** [[DidNotDoTheResearch Not according to theorists of the philosophy]], but those theorists [[YourMileageMayVary didn't always agree anyway]].: "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.

* '''Lame''' (unable to walk) and '''dumb''' (unable to speak) went from their respective meanings to being a synonym for "stupid" thanks to the dysphemism treadmill. Words denoting negatively perceived characteristics naturally become used as insults. '''Idiot''', '''moron''', '''imbecile''', and '''cretin''' were medical terms in the early 20th century, and "LD" for "learning disability" is already being used as a playground insult.

* '''[[DistaffCounterpart Distaff]]''' means "female". Some tropers have described the male counterpart to an AlwaysFemale trope as a DistaffCounterpart. The male equivalent would be "Sword Counterpart" (or "SpearCounterpart"). Likely influenced by no one having any idea what a distaff is.
** It's a weaving tool, used to keep flax or other kinds of fiber untangled while spinning.

** Many people seem to also be under the misimpression that "penultimate" means something along the lines of "even more ultimate".
* '''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. Specifically, the ancient Greeks [[YouFailBiologyForever 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.

* A '''manger''' is a feed trough. The little display with 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.

* '''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 "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.

* 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.

* '''ASCII''' (see [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ASCII Wikipedia]]) is a character-encoding scheme. ASCII 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 such as CP437 or Unicode.

* ''ASCII'' (see [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ASCII Wikipedia]]) is a character-encoding scheme. ASCII 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 such as CP437 or Unicode.

* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ASCII ASCII]] is a character-encoding scheme. ASCII 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 such as CP437 or Unicode.

** 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]].

** 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. Of course, radical movements are often prone to extremism.

** 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. Of course, radical movements are often prone to extremism.

* Every living being has a '''soul''' or '''spirit''', which are just synonyms for form, (metaphysical) species, ''quiddity'' and nature. That's just what the conjunction of life-force is called by philosophers. What is disputed in the subject of religion is whether souls (usually for humans, but it is debated for everything) continue to survive in an afterlife. If someone disputes the existence of the soul, he's quibbling about definitions, not the supernatural. (Although if you subscribe to [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bundle_theory David Hume's bundle theory]], you ''do'' dispute the existence of the soul/form. But the casual reader probably has never heard of that.)
** Technically, "soul" and "spirit" are not synonyms, either. The spirit is what religious people believe continues on after death, while the soul is consciousness, in other words, what makes you you. Presumably both would need to survive in the afterlife for such a thing to be at all meaningful to a living person.

* '''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 something 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.

** 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 social structures. Of course, radical movements are often prone to extremism.

** To say that you have a "Native American bear fetish" does not mean that you experience sexual arousal at the thought of bears belonging to tribes inhabiting the Americas before Europeans arrived. More likely, you have a carving or other artwork done by Native Americans to worship a mystic bear figure. [[NightmareFuel Most likely]].

** Also, a bar mitzvah is not when a Jewish boy is circumcised; that is on the eighth day, a bris (or b'rit, in [[AllJewsAreAshkenazi non-Ashkenazi]] dialects). The confusion comes from the fact that in Africa, boys are typically circumcised at a much older age.

** '''{{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 mis-used on females to imply a KnifeNut or crazy-murderous girls in general, even if love isn't part of the equation (Such as [[SuzumiyaHaruhiNoYuuutsu Asakura Ryouko]]).

** Similarly, as {{Narm}}y as it probably sounds to fans of ''SuzumiyaHaruhi'', "data manipulation" refers in the real world to [[ArtisticLicenseStatistics misuse of statistics]].

** Speaking of Aryans, the Nazis had a very, ah, ''unusual'' (read: arbitrary) definition of Aryan. Many Germans liked 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.

** As the original religious group known as the Samaritans still exists, calling someone a "Samaritan" is like suggesting they are a part of this group, and much like calling them a "Jew" or a "[[YouAreACreditToYourRace Good Jew]]." Not an insult per se, but likely to offend very religious people.

* '''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 liberal democratic republic) and North Korea (an odd mix of a ''de facto'' absolute monarchy, a totalitarian police state, and a pharaoic cult) are led by regimes. It is now mostly used to refer only to tyrannical, authoritarian, or repressive governments.

** Considering that 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.
** It implies something like "to request that one's opponent concede the initial point."

** The original word for last was '''ultimate''' (paene means 'almost'); however, all but the [[IncrediblyLamePun ultimate]] pedants have given up on convincing people that it means anything other than 'maximum'.

* '''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.

* '''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.")

** The carol "Away in a Manger" gives the sense that manger means either ''stable'' or ''barn''.
*** Only to someone not paying enough attention to the words. "Away in a manger/no crib for a bed." Clearly, the manger is being used as a substitute for a bed.
**** A reasonable person could parse that to mean that there is no crib in the manger rather than that the manger is used in place of a crib.

** '''{{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 mis-used on females to imply a KnifeNut or crazy-murderous girls in general, even if love isn't part of the equation (Such as [[SuzumiyaHaruhiNoYuuutsu Ryouko Asakura]]).
*** Cute, innocent, AxCrazy women (and sometimes men) are CuteAndPsycho.
** '''SugarAndIceGirl''' is often thought to mean "EmotionlessGirl". It's actually more of a "cool" approach to the {{tsundere}} character type.

* '''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.

* 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.
** On the other hand, The Other Wiki lists another name for a storm drain in the US as "storm sewer".

* 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 pro wrestling or football. It doesn't mean just any kick that makes someone fall down.

* 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". Only the highest ranking cook in the whole kitchen is ''the'' chef.

* '''Beta''' is often used to refer to a video game in any development stage before it's released. It's actually the final development stage, just when it's about to be ready for release. It is not equivilant to a video game only being part way finished; the better term would be prototype.

* '''Gay''' originally meant something closer to carefree, with undertones of being unrestricted by social conventions. That last bit made it mean something along the lines of 'bohemian' in the Victorian and Edwardian eras, in which it was applied to loose women and homosexuals. Nowadays, it's used as a generic insult for ''anything'', even if they are describing actions and objects that do ''not'' have genders and could ''not'' have a sexuality, or be happy because they are not animate or carefree.

* '''Beta''' is often used to refer to a video game in any development stage before it's released. It's actually the final development stage, just when it's about to be ready for release. It is not equivilant to a video game only being part way finished; the better term would be prototype.

* '''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 liberal democratic republic) and North Korea (an odd mix of a ''de facto'' absolute monarchy, a totalitarian police state, and a pharaoic cult) are led by regimes. It is mostly used to refer only to tyrannical, authoritarian, or repressive governments.

** Despite the opinions of the hobbyists, 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).

* '''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 "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.

* '''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".

* 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". Only the highest ranking cook in the whole kitchen is ''the'' chef.