Anachronym Challenge
xkcd.com
  • zabadoh@ani.socialEnglish
    25·
    2 months ago

    Sidewalk chalk isn’t made of chalk anymore?

    TIL: It’s made of calcium sulfate, i.e. gypsum, the same stuff that goes into drywall, as opposed to calcium carbonate, i.e. rock chalk.

  • southsamurai@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    13·
    2 months ago

    Ah, you can get actual glass glasses, but typically only for unusual prescriptions.

    And you can absolutely buy linen linens. They aren’t even hard to find, just more expensive.

    Same with silverware, only way more expensive.

      • southsamurai@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        21·
        2 months ago

        Oh, I dunno, if you’re into aesthetics as part of an experience, they do shine pretty.

        I inherited some lol.

        There is something nice about the way light bounces off of well polished silver that’s different from steel, no matter how well polished the steel is.

        But you’re completely right on any practical level. Just the degree of upkeep is prohibitive.

          • southsamurai@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
            2·
            2 months ago

            I switched to using preservation stuff a while back myself. Renaissance wax does the job, since we never actually use it. Just sits there looking pretty, no target’s tarnish at all.

            That being said, I do have some silver pieces that I let tarnish that aren’t inherited, just because I dig the look of it personally

    • Hamartiogonic@sopuli.xyzEnglish
      1·
      2 months ago

      Dumb foreigner here, so what’s the deal with silverware? I mean, if you really want silverware, you get forks and knives that are actually made of silver and come in a fancy wood box. Do people use that word for common steel forks too?

      • southsamurai@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        2·
        2 months ago

        Yeah, it’s kind of a generic term for not just tableware, but damn near any utensil that isn’t for cooking, like serving spoons, ladles and the like.

        Actual silver silverware is just expensive is all. So you aren’t going to run to a big box store find it, so a lot of people don’t even realize it’s out there. Tbh, the way brick and mortar places have been priced out or otherwise failed, you often have to go to a decent sized city to find real silver cutlery and tableware, but when I was growing up some of the department stores still carried it.

        Hell, at the lower end of the income scale, steel utensils can be pricey to afford. You end up with some pretty crappy alloy parts with plastic handles. It might technically be steel, but it’s such a low grade it falls apart under use.

        • Hamartiogonic@sopuli.xyzEnglish
          3·
          2 months ago

          Yeah, that’s t true. Even steel utensils come in a variety of prices. The nicer ones look cool, have interesting shapes are heavy etc. Moderately priced ones are just stamped steel, but still good and durable. The cheap ones, are stamped out of the thinnest low grade trash you can find. Those will bend if you just look at them wrong. Also, some cheap fruit knives have a plastic handle and aluminum rivets. Stick that into a washing machine and you’ll find out how soluble aluminum is at high pH.

    • Bgugi@lemmy.worldEnglish
      11·
      2 months ago

      I assume they were originally made from natural rubber, but nowadays are primarily made of vinyl and the like.

  • kbal@fedia.io
    11·
    2 months ago

    I thought it said “arachnonym” and was looking forward to seeing some spider names.

        • palordrolap@fedia.io
          1·
          2 months ago

          As far as people likely to say that middle one go, most of Britain would disagree that it rhymes with spider. You might get a crisp T or, more likely, a glottal stop, but not a D sound.

          That said, Aussies are even more likely to use it and they do have some t-d merger going on in some of their accents.

  • Nailbar@sopuli.xyzEnglish
    9·
    2 months ago

    The 9 iron and 3 wood made me think he was going to craft something in a 3x3 grid. I failed to associate it with golf.

  • thenextguy@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1·
    2 months ago

    3 wood…

    Golf announcers have been calling ‘fairway woods’ ‘fairway metals’ for a while. But since most of them are largely made of carbon fiber these days, even that is misleading.

    Isn’t wood a sort of carbon fiber composite? Can we go back to calling them woods again?

  • ChaoticNeutralCzech@feddit.orgEnglish
    1·
    27 days ago

    Anyone can think of other examples? Note that we’re not looking for simple misnomers like pencil lead, the things must have been made of the stuff they’re named after at some point!

    • marbles
    • compressed air (no doubt somebody has used compressed air for what can dusters are used for nowadays, but selling it in cans has probably never been economically viable)