misnomer

[Jonathan Lighter]

So common on TV news for a number of years that it's almost the only way you'll hear "misnomer" used on those shows.

  JL
George Thompson <george.thompson at NYU.EDU> wrote:
  ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: George Thompson
Subject: Re: misnomer
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

20 or 25 years ago I heard from someone "that's a misnomer", meaning "That's a misconception". "that's an erroneous belief", which would be plausible substitutions in the Lake Wobegon passage, at least.

GAT

George A. Thompson
Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern Univ. Pr., 1998, but nothing much lately.

----- Original Message -----
From: Dave Wilton
Date: Friday, March 28, 2008 9:18 pm
Subject: Re: misnomer
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU


> It's been around at least since 1999.
>
> Fury, David, "Fear Itself," "Buffy The Vampire Slayer" (TV series), air
> date: 8 Oct 1999:
>
> RILEY
> Halloween ain't a night for responsibility.
> It's when the ghosts and goblins come out.
>
> BUFFY
> That's actually a misnomer -
>
> RILEY
> Well, I didn't mean real ones.
>
> (In the Buffyverse, demons take the night off on Halloween. They find
> the
> holiday too crass and commercial.)
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On
> Behalf Of
> Herb Stahlke
> Sent: Friday, March 28, 2008 5:50 PM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: misnomer
>
> I came across the following usage of "misnomer" today in the current issue
> of In-Fisherman, p. 70:
>
> Up in Lake Wobegon country, pike that reach 20 pounds or more are commonly
> called gators. Today, most anglers accept the misnomer that consistent
> fishing for gators is confined to waters beyond the road, somewhere
> deep in
> the Canadian wilderness. That's a myth.
>
> I hadn't run into "misnomer" as "myth" before, but apparently it's common
> enough that Fact-Archive has the following (
> http://www.fact-archive.com/dictionary/Misnomer)
>
> 3. Something that is not true; a
> myth<.
>
>
> *It is a misnomer that elephants are afraid of mice.*
> Usage note
>
> The extended sense of *misnomer* meaning *myth* is generally considered
> incorrect.
>
> So how widespread is this usage? AHD4 Online doesn't have a usage
> note on
> it.
>
> Herb
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org



---------------------------------
Never miss a thing.   Make Yahoo your homepage.

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org