Misnomer
A misnomer is a name that is incorrectly or unsuitably applied. Misnomers often arise because something was named long before its correct nature was known, or because an earlier form of something has been replaced by a later form to which the name no longer suitably applies. A misnomer may also be a word that is used incorrectly or misleadingly. The word "misnomer" does not mean "misunderstanding" or "popular misconception", and a number of misnomers remain in common usage — which is to say that a word being a misnomer does not necessarily make usage of the word incorrect.
Examples
Older name retained
- The "lead" in pencils is made of graphite and clay, not lead; graphite was once believed to be lead ore. The graphite and clay mix is known as plumbago, meaning "lead ore" in Latin.
- Blackboards can be black, green, red, blue, or brown.
- Sticks of chalk are no longer made of chalk, but of gypsum.
- Tin foil is almost always made of aluminium, whereas "tin cans" made for the storage of food products are made from steel with a thin tin plating. In both cases, tin was the original metal.
- Telephone numbers are referred to as being "dialed" although rotary phones are now rare.
- In golf, the clubs referred to as woods were once made of wood but are now usually made of metal.
Similarity of appearance
- Head cheese is a meat product.
- A horned toad is a lizard.
- A velvet ant is a wasp.
Difference between common and technical meanings
- Koala "bears" are marsupials not closely related to the bear family, Ursidae. The term "koala" is preferred in their native Australia.
- Jellyfish and starfish are only very distantly related to fish, being in separate phyla. The gelatinous structure of jellyfish is similar to gelatin dessert.
- A peanut is not a nut in the botanical sense, but a legume. A coconut is not a botanical nut but a drupe.
- Fruits that are not botanically considered berries include strawberries, bayberries, raspberries, and blackberries.
Association with place other than that which one may assume
- The guinea pig originated in the Andes, not Guinea, and is a rodent unrelated to pigs.
- French horns originated in Germany, not France. Similarly, French fries were invented in Belgium, not France.
- Chinese checkers originated in Germany.
Other
- Although dry cleaning does not involve water, it does involve the use of liquid solvents.
- The "funny bone" is not a bone—the phrase refers to the ulnar nerve.
- A quantum leap is properly an instantaneous change that may be large or small. In physics, it is a change of an electron from one energy level to another. In common usage the term is often used to mean a large, abrupt change.
- "Tennis elbow" does not necessarily result from playing tennis.