  a misnomer is a word or term that suggests a meaning that is known to be wrong. misnomers often arise because the thing named received its name long before its true nature was known. a misnomer may also be simply a word that is used incorrectly or misleadingly. "misnomer" does not mean "misunderstanding" or "popular misconception". == sources of misnomers == some of the sources of misnomers are: * an older name being retained after the thing named has changed (e.g. tin can, fixed income market, mince meat pie, steamroller, tin foil, clothes iron, digital darkroom). this is essentially a metaphorical extension with the older item standing for anything filling its role. * transference of a well-known product brand name into a genericized trademark (e.g., xerox for photocopy, kleenex for tissue or jell-o for gelatin dessert). * an older name being retained even in the face of newer information (e.g., chinese checkers, arabic numerals). * pars pro toto, or a name being applied to something which only covers part of a region. the name holland is often used to refer to the netherlands while it only designates a part of that country; sometimes people refer to the suburbs of a metropolis with the name of the biggest city in the metropolis. * a name being based on a similarity in a particular aspect (e.g., "shooting stars" look like falling stars but are actually meteors). * a difference between popular and technical meanings of a term. for example, a koala "bear" (see below) looks and acts much like a bear, but in actuality, it is quite distinct and unrelated. similarly, fireflies fly like flies, and ladybugs look and act like bugs. botanically, peanuts are not true nuts, even though they look and taste like nuts. the technical sense is often cited as the "correct" sense, but this is a matter of context. * ambiguity (e.g., a parkway is generally a road with park-like landscaping, not a place to park). such a term may confuse those unfamiliar. * association of a thing with a place other than one might assume. for example, panama hats are made in ecuador, but came to be associated with the building of the panama canal. * naming particular to the originator's world view. * an unfamiliar name (generally foreign) or technical term being re-analyzed as something more familiar (see folk etymology). * anachronisms, terms being applied to things that belong to another time, especially mu
English-language_idioms Semantics