[The original saying *was* "heels over head"](https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/head-over-heels.html) but it got corrupted much like "You can't have your cake and eat it too" should be and originally was "You can't eat your cake and have it too"
Pretty sure these are words specifically made up by the internet as jokes, and have since taken on a life of their own. Even getting their own pages on medical websites.
Ahhhhhggh. This comment hits hard. While I write in English well now, at 40, I still can't fucking talk in English well. Saying "lisp," "stutter," "dexlexia," or "speech impediment," is just like a fucking cruel joke. Seriously, English-- in all your rules that *all* have exceptions, why do you have to be do mean to people really trying to be fluent. Fucking English, man.
$2 bucks needs that SNL clip of Chevy Chase bit where’s he’s on the phone saying, “you don’t blow on it, that’s just an expression” before comically realizing he’s on camera.
Not only recognized worldwide. It became a verb. To tweet something. That’s like the ultimate accomplishment. “To google something”
Not even Facebook or apple have accomplished that, although “to like” as a concrete action on social media came with FB.
And he gave that away.
Google actually HATES that their name has turned into a generic verb because it threatens their ability to keep their trademark. Same thing with other brand names like Aspirin and Photoshop, Bayer and Adobe both released similar statements to Google about the “proper” usage of their trademarked terms.
Having said that though, no one uses “tweet” to mean anything other than a post specifically made on Twitter, so that makes it an even bigger, more rare feat. Elon is a dumbass for flushing that down the drain.
I straight out refuse to call it X, and I replaced the app icon on my phone with the old Twitter one.
Edits:
1) Since quite a few people have asked, I changed the app icon using Nova Launcher (on Android), an alternative launcher that allows you to customize virtually any aspect of the UI, including apps shortcuts icons and name. I'm sure there are other ways, both on Android and on iOs, but that's the one I used.
2) I'm not quitting Twitter (yet) because at the moment, even if the feeling of witnessing a slow-motion car accident is stronger every day, there are simply no viable alternatives. There are dozens of people, news outlets, pundits, artists that I follow and have interacted with for years (I've been on Twitter since 2007) that are to be found nowhere else, so, at least until Threads became available in the EU, and/or Bluesky and Mastodon grow enough, I have to put up with the enshittification of a social network I had come to love, and now I merely tolerate.
Yeah, because X can mean literally anything. It's legit just one damn letter. It's so vague. If you refer to 'X' out of context, nobody's gonna know what you're talking about.
He made the name of the site the same icon you generally click to close a window you’re looking at. Seems like a plan to subliminally tank your own traffic.
Musk is an edgelord teen trapped in an adult body. He actually wanted to rename PayPal to X but there was a board involved that vetoed it.
He named the Tesla models to spell Sexy (S3XY). How pathetic is that?! He actually wanted the 3 to be the model E but Ford challenged as it was too close to Model T so he did the old number replacement.
EDIT: The Ford challenge was actually because they were creating "Model E" as a separate brand for their electric vehicles. Thanks for the correction.
It is funny to think that Ford is holding onto the rights to the Model T. Like, they could bring it back at any time. Imagine the 2024 version of the Model T.
There was a meme (tweet, but anywho) which claimed if you break down the phonetics of the symbols, the pronunciation is “Kyle”.
Take that with a large dose of sodium.
Ladbrokes is a favorite of mine. Unsure if "broke" means having no money in the UK, but it does in the US. Hence, the name makes me think of a bunch of broke men (i.e. lads), and why would you name a gambling location this?
Smegma is called smegma in Italian too.
So not really an excuse. It sounds bad to many of us too, but apparently not enough to convince them to change name.
Is an acronym, it was very common at the time to call your business an acronym. Fiat is the acronym for *Fabrica Italiana Automobili Torino*, "Italian factory of cars, Turin" I don't know how to translate it exactly, the "Torino" is weirdly placed in Italian too.
(Yes, I know about the fix it again Tony joke)
More, SMEG is an acronym, meaning Smalterie Metallurgiche Emiliane Guastalla. In English it would be something like Emilian (as in Emilia-Romagna) Enamel and Metalworks Guastalla (a town in, you guessed it, Emilia-Romagna).
The reason they’re called that is one of the most hilarious historical facts I like to tell people. I died when I first heard.
From Wikipedia: “The name "sperm whale" is a clipping of "spermaceti whale". Spermaceti, originally mistakenly identified as the whales' semen, is the semi-liquid, waxy substance found within the whale's head.”
They got jizz in their heads lol
I shall found a new country then. The Democratic Commonwealth Balloting Freedom Democratic Parliamentary Republic of Voteistania.
National motto: Vote *and* die.
The DPRK has four lies in the just the one name; Democratic (it's not) People's (it's a military dictatorship) Republic (the highest position of power is hereditary) of Korea (it doesn't occupy the whole of the Korean peninsula).
Technically, calling something Korean does not need to mean it covers all of Korea. Just like the USA don't cover all of Americas - but the country is still no less American.
Chicken nuggets are already adult chicken nuggets, I'm an adult and I will happily stroll into Maccas and order me a 24 pack of nuggies, then go and sit down and scoff the lot, and no one can stop me.
fun fact: the word "parking" was originally a noun used to describe the bit of green (grass) alongside of the road (because it's a mini-park). When we needed a verb to describe what cars do when they stop moving, we came up with "park", because they did so along the "parking".
So a parkway was a way (street) that's lined with parking (grass). It made sense at one time, but not anymore.
Canola is a specific type of rapeseed created through crossbreeding to improve its use in food, especially oils. Designed in Winnipeg, Manitoba. CanOLA stands for “Canadian Oil Low Acid”.
There was a car ad some years ago that had *rape yellow* as a color. They meant *rapeseed* but didn’t take into consideration the English pronunciation of that word. It’s ruh-pay and is apparently common in other countries.
Flammable means that something can be set fire to e.g. wood, inflammable means that it can combust by itself e.g certain types of liquid chemicals and fuels.
Tradescantia zebrina, colloquially known as Wandering Jew, a common and beautiful houseplant that people are always coming up with creative names for in r/houseplants to replace its outdated name
Just imagine talking to someone about this and they don't know what it is. "I'm growing a wandering dude in my house" And they just fall to the floor, laughing, like some cartoon.
I was there visiting during a small festival. There we’re two signs sitting right next to each other. One said had the name of the festival written on it. The other was a sign directing people for a business. The result was “Dildo Days. Service at the wharf.” This still cracks me up two decades later.
Add to that that Hiscock is a common name in Newfoundland, and there was lots of giggling as we explored the island. It was Hiscock’s this and Hiscock’s that.
Not “poorly” named depending on your pov but in Battle Creek, Michigan, there is a long on-ramp to the freeway called “the Penetrator”. There are several streets that connect to the Penetrator, including Dickman Rd. So you could take Dickman rd to the Penetrator and follow it to Climax, one of the next towns over.
Have you never eaten a butterfly? It tastes just like butter. If you look at the ingredients for 'I Can't Believe It's Not Butter' it lists butterflies.
"You have difficulty with time management, prioritizing, establishing routines, and staying mentally present in boring situations. Meth makes you calmer and more in control of yourself. We've named this condition *Sit Still And Pay Attention Damn It Kid Disease*."
Häagen-Dazs
It's literally just random letters meant to sound Danish.
It's the equivalent of that Italian song that's complete gibberish that imitates what English sounds like to a non-English speaker: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VsmF9m_Nt8
Soylent. Everything about that company makes it seem like they started it as a joke but then it snowballed out of control and they just had to run with it.
Another great example is Huel - a competitor of Soylent. "Huel" is an onomatopoeia for the sound a person makes when they're vomiting.
Polish name for vulva is srom which comes from the archaic word sromota which means dishonour/shame/disgrace. I hate this word. My private parts are not a disgrace.
In Swedish, nipple is called bröstvårta, which means breast wart. Not ideal.
So sexy. “Ooh, I want to lick your breast warts.”
So romantic!!
Same in German. Brustwarze
Not to be confused with its more famous male equivalent, bratwurst.
Oh god…
Being head over heels. We’re almost always head over heels.
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"which makes more sense but is a little weird also" sounds fundamentally German.
I prefer "arse over teakettle"
Arse over tit is another good one
[The original saying *was* "heels over head"](https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/head-over-heels.html) but it got corrupted much like "You can't have your cake and eat it too" should be and originally was "You can't eat your cake and have it too"
Lisp.
The same probably goes for "stutter".
Dyslexia...
Hippopomonstrosesquipedalophobia and aibohphobia enter this category as well
Fear of long words and fear of palindromes, respectively.
Honestly, what the hell is the logic behind this? Just seems unnecessarily cruel to the people dealing with it.
Pretty sure these are words specifically made up by the internet as jokes, and have since taken on a life of their own. Even getting their own pages on medical websites.
Not sure if they’re still using the term, but I always thought “speech impediment” was a rough one.
Ahhhhhggh. This comment hits hard. While I write in English well now, at 40, I still can't fucking talk in English well. Saying "lisp," "stutter," "dexlexia," or "speech impediment," is just like a fucking cruel joke. Seriously, English-- in all your rules that *all* have exceptions, why do you have to be do mean to people really trying to be fluent. Fucking English, man.
How bout Rhotacism. It’s for people who can’t pronounce their Rs
That seems...unnecessarily mean.
Blow job.
Suck chore
Extraction occupation.
Vacuum task.
$2 bucks needs that SNL clip of Chevy Chase bit where’s he’s on the phone saying, “you don’t blow on it, that’s just an expression” before comically realizing he’s on camera.
“Blow” is an older term for ‘ejaculate’ or ‘cum’ —as in: “I’m gonna blow!”— that we don’t use anymore (thankfully).
Along that line, scumbag is an obsolete word for condom that I’m glad we don’t use anymore
WHAT?!?
It makes calling someone a scumbag that much worse, doesn’t it?!
Here in Miami, we have a zoo called “Zoo Miami” it’s just weird asf it was named that way, why not Miami Zoo?
Sounds like a 80s movie title
Zoom! I am me.
Also in Florida, The City of Panama City City Hall
Department of Redundancy Department.
We have ZooTampa.
X (Twitter). Sounds like a porn site.
Dude gave up a brand name recognized worldwide for a something you can't even google properly.
Not only recognized worldwide. It became a verb. To tweet something. That’s like the ultimate accomplishment. “To google something” Not even Facebook or apple have accomplished that, although “to like” as a concrete action on social media came with FB. And he gave that away.
Google actually HATES that their name has turned into a generic verb because it threatens their ability to keep their trademark. Same thing with other brand names like Aspirin and Photoshop, Bayer and Adobe both released similar statements to Google about the “proper” usage of their trademarked terms. Having said that though, no one uses “tweet” to mean anything other than a post specifically made on Twitter, so that makes it an even bigger, more rare feat. Elon is a dumbass for flushing that down the drain.
Xerox has successfully reversed this trend in the US. But it has failed in some other countries, where “xerox” is used as a verb
Xerox, bandaid and kleenex. It was years b4 I realized that's a brand name, not an actual 'thing'.
Trampoline used to be a brand name. The generic term was "rebound tumbler," but everyone just said trampoline, and now that's what it is.
they were actually called jumpolines until the mid-70s when your mother got on one
chapstick
[Velcro made a song about it](https://youtu.be/rRi8LptvFZY?si=gC7S9njvgm0odnGH)
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He’s not any better at naming his children.
Not to mention, it will *forever* be referred to as "X (formerly Twitter)".
I straight out refuse to call it X, and I replaced the app icon on my phone with the old Twitter one. Edits: 1) Since quite a few people have asked, I changed the app icon using Nova Launcher (on Android), an alternative launcher that allows you to customize virtually any aspect of the UI, including apps shortcuts icons and name. I'm sure there are other ways, both on Android and on iOs, but that's the one I used. 2) I'm not quitting Twitter (yet) because at the moment, even if the feeling of witnessing a slow-motion car accident is stronger every day, there are simply no viable alternatives. There are dozens of people, news outlets, pundits, artists that I follow and have interacted with for years (I've been on Twitter since 2007) that are to be found nowhere else, so, at least until Threads became available in the EU, and/or Bluesky and Mastodon grow enough, I have to put up with the enshittification of a social network I had come to love, and now I merely tolerate.
This is genius—just changed the icon on mine too!
Yeah, because X can mean literally anything. It's legit just one damn letter. It's so vague. If you refer to 'X' out of context, nobody's gonna know what you're talking about.
He made the name of the site the same icon you generally click to close a window you’re looking at. Seems like a plan to subliminally tank your own traffic.
Musk is an edgelord teen trapped in an adult body. He actually wanted to rename PayPal to X but there was a board involved that vetoed it. He named the Tesla models to spell Sexy (S3XY). How pathetic is that?! He actually wanted the 3 to be the model E but Ford challenged as it was too close to Model T so he did the old number replacement. EDIT: The Ford challenge was actually because they were creating "Model E" as a separate brand for their electric vehicles. Thanks for the correction.
Ford trademarked "Model E" in 2001 to be used for electric vehicles. It's not about the Model T.
It is funny to think that Ford is holding onto the rights to the Model T. Like, they could bring it back at any time. Imagine the 2024 version of the Model T.
An electric model T to drive around town... yes please.
Mandatory Owooga horn.
I would buy the shit out of a model T and I can't drive.
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What in holy loving light of all that's true, is *that* monstrosity?! How the fuck is that pronounced? What does it even mean?! My brain is melting!
There was a meme (tweet, but anywho) which claimed if you break down the phonetics of the symbols, the pronunciation is “Kyle”. Take that with a large dose of sodium.
Don’t forget. He somehow has children. Someone procreated with him.
He has children with multiple women. I can't remember the number but he's up there with Nick Cannon.
Money is a hell of a drug.
I almost shit myself when I clicked a link and it redirected me to x.com
Lots ok UK Shops. Boots don’t sell footwear. Curry’s don’t sell food. And the biggest disappointment of them all is SuperDrug.
Ladbrokes is a favorite of mine. Unsure if "broke" means having no money in the UK, but it does in the US. Hence, the name makes me think of a bunch of broke men (i.e. lads), and why would you name a gambling location this?
I bet you can't guess what Selfridges DON'T sell..
Smeg fridges
I came here to call out Smeg. I know it's Italian, but my brain cannot separate it from the word smegma (genitalia grime).
Smegma is called smegma in Italian too. So not really an excuse. It sounds bad to many of us too, but apparently not enough to convince them to change name. Is an acronym, it was very common at the time to call your business an acronym. Fiat is the acronym for *Fabrica Italiana Automobili Torino*, "Italian factory of cars, Turin" I don't know how to translate it exactly, the "Torino" is weirdly placed in Italian too. (Yes, I know about the fix it again Tony joke)
More, SMEG is an acronym, meaning Smalterie Metallurgiche Emiliane Guastalla. In English it would be something like Emilian (as in Emilia-Romagna) Enamel and Metalworks Guastalla (a town in, you guessed it, Emilia-Romagna).
As a *Red Dwarf* fan, this always made me chuckle.
Heeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaad
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Totally agree, I have a mate who swears they’re the same. Edit: Ham and hamster are the same that is.
Yes! I can't understand where does the name come from..
An attempt to piggyback on the success of Java. Ironically, now JavaScript is the thriving one.
Sperm whale
Named by seamen.
At least it's not Cum Whale
"Thank you for naming these species of whales." "You're whale cum.
The reason they’re called that is one of the most hilarious historical facts I like to tell people. I died when I first heard. From Wikipedia: “The name "sperm whale" is a clipping of "spermaceti whale". Spermaceti, originally mistakenly identified as the whales' semen, is the semi-liquid, waxy substance found within the whale's head.” They got jizz in their heads lol
Iceland/Greenland.
Biggest scam in history, so big you can see it on a world map
It's called "strategy"
I learned about this from D2 - The Mighty Ducks
The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea
A good rule of thumb is that if a country has the word "democratic" in their name, they are not a democracy.
The more descriptions of democracy the name has, the less democratic it probably is.
I shall found a new country then. The Democratic Commonwealth Balloting Freedom Democratic Parliamentary Republic of Voteistania. National motto: Vote *and* die.
suffragium et mori
The People's Republic of China. Nothing belongs to the people there.
The DPRK has four lies in the just the one name; Democratic (it's not) People's (it's a military dictatorship) Republic (the highest position of power is hereditary) of Korea (it doesn't occupy the whole of the Korean peninsula).
Technically, calling something Korean does not need to mean it covers all of Korea. Just like the USA don't cover all of Americas - but the country is still no less American.
Jerusalem artichoke. It's not from the Middle East and it's not an artichoke.
Cornhole- the beanbag toss game. Where I come from, " cornhole" was a euphemism for anal sex.
I hate the name of that game. Where I am from, it means anus.
😹 I was in my mid 20s when I learned "cornhole" didn't always refer to buttsex.
Boneless wings
Excuse me, they are "Adult Chicken Nuggets".
Chicken nuggets are already adult chicken nuggets, I'm an adult and I will happily stroll into Maccas and order me a 24 pack of nuggies, then go and sit down and scoff the lot, and no one can stop me.
That second sentence is probably the most Australian sentence I've ever read Edit: the first comma looked like a period on 4 hours of sleep
Twas all one sentence tho
He’s Australian tho
They are really smartly named. You can sell chunks of breaded chicken at a premium by associating them with Wings.
Driveway. Where you PARK. Parkway. Where you DRIVE.
fun fact: the word "parking" was originally a noun used to describe the bit of green (grass) alongside of the road (because it's a mini-park). When we needed a verb to describe what cars do when they stop moving, we came up with "park", because they did so along the "parking". So a parkway was a way (street) that's lined with parking (grass). It made sense at one time, but not anymore.
Thank. You. I never knew this. Makes sense now. The world is at peace.
Similarly the 'dashboard' in a car is named after a wooden board that would prevent a horse from dashing stones in to the carriage as it ran
Life insurance - it’s really death insurance. Social security- it’s really life insurance.
Cornea's hungarian name is "szaruhártya", meaning "keratine membrane". It makes no sense because a cornea isn't made of keratine.
Keratoconus is the condition that causes the cornea to bulge outward. Apparently, kerato is the Greek word for cornea.
So hungarians just translated the greek name? Damn, that's interesting.
Rapeseed. So much that they rebranded it to Canola.
Canola is a specific type of rapeseed created through crossbreeding to improve its use in food, especially oils. Designed in Winnipeg, Manitoba. CanOLA stands for “Canadian Oil Low Acid”.
I love this fact so much. I'm going to tell everyone I know.
Til
There was a car ad some years ago that had *rape yellow* as a color. They meant *rapeseed* but didn’t take into consideration the English pronunciation of that word. It’s ruh-pay and is apparently common in other countries.
Jet ski missed out on becoming "Boatorcycle".
Urinal cake should’ve been Pisscuit (pronounced like biscuit)
Inflammable, it has the same meaning as flammable, which is kinda weird.
What a country!
“Hey Dr. Nick”
Sanction, as in to allow. It has the opposite meaning of sanction, which means to deny.
There are a few more like this. They’re called contronyms. Cleave is another one.
All of those Amelia Bedelia books I loved as a kid...she would 'dust' the house by throwing dust all over it, etc etc. I loved her!
Flammable means that something can be set fire to e.g. wood, inflammable means that it can combust by itself e.g certain types of liquid chemicals and fuels.
Flushable wipes. They are not.
What's the obvious name for the sequel to the movie "Now you see me"? "Now you see me 2" of course! Idiots.
Home Alone 2. He’s not even home
Kansas City, Missouri
Elon Musk's children
So bad one of them had to change their first and last names.
The letter W
We should start a petition to call it double-v
That's its name in French!
Wait until the rest of the world hears about that
I’ve taken to calling it Dub. Not that I have to say it to o often, but I think it’s saved me about 2 seconds so far.
Buildings, they should be called builts
Tradescantia zebrina, colloquially known as Wandering Jew, a common and beautiful houseplant that people are always coming up with creative names for in r/houseplants to replace its outdated name
I thought Wandering Dude had been accepted as the new name.
Just imagine talking to someone about this and they don't know what it is. "I'm growing a wandering dude in my house" And they just fall to the floor, laughing, like some cartoon.
I still can't believe they seriously went with "Unobtanium"
There is history to the name. It's a scientific placeholder.
It seems more like a placeholder name they forgot to change
Almost as good as "La, a note to follow so..."
It's always kind of bothered me that when I see the word "THERAPIST" on a sign, it jumps out to me as "THE RAPIST".
Nice one, Trebek!
Ape tit for $400
Your mother Trabek
I'm still looking for the penis mightier.
I’ll take “Anal Bum Cover” for $200!
Doubly so for Psychotherapist. Sounds like an escaped convict.
The worst birthday clown ever.
Imagine, then, being the world's first and only Analyst and Therapist. An ANALRAPIST, if you will.
Righto, Tobias.
Sweetbreads. Neither sweet nor bread.
I've always thought that "palindrome" should be changed so that it is a palindrome.
Just call it palilap.
Dildo, Newfoundland
I was there visiting during a small festival. There we’re two signs sitting right next to each other. One said had the name of the festival written on it. The other was a sign directing people for a business. The result was “Dildo Days. Service at the wharf.” This still cracks me up two decades later. Add to that that Hiscock is a common name in Newfoundland, and there was lots of giggling as we explored the island. It was Hiscock’s this and Hiscock’s that.
Capybaras should been called "Guinea Bigs"
There is an animal called a Mountain Chicken. It is just a frog.
Not “poorly” named depending on your pov but in Battle Creek, Michigan, there is a long on-ramp to the freeway called “the Penetrator”. There are several streets that connect to the Penetrator, including Dickman Rd. So you could take Dickman rd to the Penetrator and follow it to Climax, one of the next towns over.
Apartments, they're all stuck together.
Shitzu dogs edit: yes I know its origin is of Asian descent. it's just unfortunate how it appears in English
Black Nikka whiskey
That's toeing a fkn line 😳
Kum & Go convenience store
Jizz and Jet. Ejaculate and evacuate. Squirt and skirt.
Butterfly, obviously should be *'flutter by'*
Have you never eaten a butterfly? It tastes just like butter. If you look at the ingredients for 'I Can't Believe It's Not Butter' it lists butterflies.
Pen Island’s website.
Kumquat
Taking a shit. Nobody takes a shit. They leave a shit.
Your funny bone...It's not a bone and there isn't shit funny about it when you hit that nerve
I think it's just cos the bone is called the humerus. Like it's a real dad joke.
Clipless pedals. You need to clip into them.
Tesla full self driving
There’s a ride-pooling app in my country called Kumpool. It’s like they weren’t even trying.
Volkswagen’s Instagram handle in Italy: @volkswagenitalia
ADHD. We don’t have a deficit of attention. Hyperactivity often has nothing to do with it. It’s more like Executive Function Disorder.
"You have difficulty with time management, prioritizing, establishing routines, and staying mentally present in boring situations. Meth makes you calmer and more in control of yourself. We've named this condition *Sit Still And Pay Attention Damn It Kid Disease*."
I've always hated the phrase "sleep like a baby" So like waking up every 45 minutes and crying?
The Fifth Element (1997). Not once do they speak the word “boron”!
Pineapple
In nearly every language, it's a variety of the word "nanas"
Häagen-Dazs It's literally just random letters meant to sound Danish. It's the equivalent of that Italian song that's complete gibberish that imitates what English sounds like to a non-English speaker: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VsmF9m_Nt8
this is gonna make for some weird dreams watching this right before i fall asleep lol
Soylent. Everything about that company makes it seem like they started it as a joke but then it snowballed out of control and they just had to run with it. Another great example is Huel - a competitor of Soylent. "Huel" is an onomatopoeia for the sound a person makes when they're vomiting.
Gas (gasoline)... last time I "got gas" it wasn't a gas.. it was a liquid.
'The last time I "got gas" it wasn't gas...it was liquid' both describes the state of matter when fuelling your car and also mistrusting a fart.
Polish name for vulva is srom which comes from the archaic word sromota which means dishonour/shame/disgrace. I hate this word. My private parts are not a disgrace.
Holy Roman Empire - It ain't holy, it wasn't Roman, and it wasn't an empire
Ruth's Chris Steak House
Pedometer