Common mistakes or misnomers

[2 sMoKiN bArReLs]

Inspired by another thread.

Most people will know that wing mirrors are so called because they are fitted to the wing of your car. Door mirrors are so called because they are fitted to the door of your car.

There seems to be an increasing trend of folk muddling the above up. I suppose, as wing mirrors are consigned to history door mirrors might be known as wing mirrors.

Can you think of any other common misnomers or mistakes? (All the better if the mistake becomes the actual!)

Calling the clock tower at the Houses of Parliament Big Ben?

Robin Reliant?

[2 sMoKiN bArReLs]

Robin Reliant is pretty common and I wonder how that came about?

That got me wondering why a Jaguar E-Type is known as an E-Type Jaguar.

All the Ford literature I’ve ever seen refers to a Cortina Lotus, yet……

[V8covin]

And none of it matters.....unless you're a member of the pedantic pistonheads club.....or should that be the pistonheads pedant club

[2 sMoKiN bArReLs]

V8covin said:

And none of it matters.....unless you're a member of the pedantic pistonheads club.....or should that be the pistonheads pedant club

That’s 99% of PH then!

In the end does anything matter?

That could be another thread

[2 sMoKiN bArReLs]

Ooh, I’ve got another

Spiral staircase

[anonymous-user]

Honest politician.

[2 sMoKiN bArReLs]

garyhun said:

Honest politician.

Not a phrase I’ve ever heard?

[Evoluzione]

2 sMoKiN bArReLs said:

Ooh, I’ve got another

Spiral staircase

Go on, i'll be that person. Why is spiral staircase wrong?



Breeze blocks and silicon sealer are a PH favourite.

[skilly1]

ATM machine.
PIN number.

[Evoluzione]

Flat board on the inside of a window is not a cill (or sill), it's a window board.
The cill is either the horizontal bottom member of a window frame or the bit extending it outside.

Petrol station.

[jayymannon]

One that I first saw in the Council thread, Chester Drawers.

[Doofus]

Evoluzione said:

2 sMoKiN bArReLs said:

Ooh, I’ve got another

Spiral staircase

Go on, i'll be that person. Why is spiral staircase wrong?

Strictly speaking they're helical, not spiral.

[vikingaero]

PAC Code.

[Evoluzione]

Doofus said:

Evoluzione said:

2 sMoKiN bArReLs said:

Ooh, I’ve got another

Spiral staircase

Go on, i'll be that person. Why is spiral staircase wrong?

Strictly speaking they're helical, not spiral.

The Oxford and Cambridge dictionaries don't support that.

[vixen1700]

Stanstead Airport.

[Gooseberry]

Disinterested is often used as a synonym for uninterested. But it doesn't mean that.

[Doofus]

Evoluzione said:

Doofus said:

Evoluzione said:

2 sMoKiN bArReLs said:

Ooh, I’ve got another

Spiral staircase

Go on, i'll be that person. Why is spiral staircase wrong?

Strictly speaking they're helical, not spiral.

The Oxford and Cambridge dictionaries don't support that.

I know. But a spiral emanates from a central point and gets progressively larger, which isn't what a spiral staircase does. I suspect that's why 2 sMoKiN bArReLs said it.

[Louis Balfour]

2 sMoKiN bArReLs said:

Inspired by another thread.

Most people will know that wing mirrors are so called because they are fitted to the wing of your car. Door mirrors are so called because they are fitted to the door of your car.

There seems to be an increasing trend of folk muddling the above up. I suppose, as wing mirrors are consigned to history door mirrors might be known as wing mirrors.

Can you think of any other common misnomers or mistakes? (All the better if the mistake becomes the actual!)

Calling the clock tower at the Houses of Parliament Big Ben?

Robin Reliant?

Expresso

Porsche 930 Turbo

Brown

[DoctorX]

Grill and Grille.

[StevieBee]

When people say, "I recycle my waste"...... No you don't!

Waste is something that has reached the end of its useful and economic life.

Recycling is a material - a commodity - that requires placing back into the supply chain.