History YouKeepUsingThatWord / ModeratelyPedantic

* '''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."). 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".

* '''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. Oddly enough, its DistaffCounterpart term "reverse trap" hasn't undergone the same process.

** And essentially no one considers Russians to be Asian even though 77% of Russia falls within the continent of Asia.

* '''Gay''' originally meant something closer to [[FreeSpirit 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.

* '''Gay''' originally meant something closer to carefree, with undertones of being unrestricted by social conventions. Later on, it was used to describe 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.

* '''Trap''' has had its use hotly debated about over the years. Among Ankme/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. Oddly enough, its DistaffCounterpart term "reverse trap" hasn't undergone the same process.

* '''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.

* '''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". ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons''' or Creator/{{Disney}} would also be called anime in Japan.

** The use of "Gothic" to refer to 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.

* '''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 means 'chops into small cubes' and is completely unrelated.

* '''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 means 'chops into small cubes' and is completely unrelated..

* '''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 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.

'''Please put examples in alphabetical order.'''

** ''Statue'' Of Limitations is simply a spelling error. [[note]]unless referring to an actual statue, perhaps an antithesis to the US UsefulNotes/StatueOfLiberty[[/note]]

* '''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 (love to watch a lot of movies that it begins to affect your personal life? You're a cinema otaku). 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 for "clan" or something like that.