3075: Anachronym Challenge

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Anachronym Challenge

Title text: I have to pay with paper money.

Explanation

This explanation is incomplete: The table is incomplete. If you can fix this issue, edit the page!

Cueball is reading from a shopping list while shopping for groceries. The items on the list are all anachronyms. The names of the items indicate their material, but they are no longer made from that material.

Item	Original material	Original still generally available?	Actually made with	Explanation
Tin foil	Tin	Yes	Aluminum	Formerly "tin foil" was made of the metal tin, but aluminum supplanted tin in the early-to-mid 20th century, as aluminum is cheaper and more durable.
Sponges	Sea sponges, i.e., marine invertebrates in the phylum Porifera	Yes	Polyester, polyurethane, cellulose	An item commonly used in the kitchen to soak up water. Or bathrooms to wash yourself.
Silverware	Silver	Yes, though at greater expense than silverplated or silver-like	Stainless steel	Covers eating utensils, plates and dishes, candlesticks and trophies, which may all these days be electroplated, cupro-nickel alloys or stainless steel. Possibly intended to only refer to knives, forks and spoons, which are marginally more likely everyday household purchases than the other candidates, though still less so than more disposable versions made of plastic or wood which cannot even be casually mistaken for silver.
Linens	Flax	Yes	Cotton, hemp, polyester	Commonly in the form of sheets and blankets.
Clothes iron	Iron	No	Aluminum, stainless steel & plastics	Used as a tool to remove wrinkles in clothing by heating it up. Modern irons are powered, but traditional irons needed to be heated.
Ironing board	Wooden board	Yes	Metal, fabric cover	Flat surface for ironing clothes. It could also refer to how an ironing board is not made from iron.
Reading glasses	Glass	Yes	Optical plastics	Used to assist farsighted people with focusing on things up close. Also traditionally made with glass, but nowadays made with CR-39 plastic due to glass's danger of shattering and higher weight.
9 iron	Iron	Yes	Cast stainless steel, carbon steel	A type of golf club.
3 wood	Wood	Yes	Titanium, carbon fiber	A type of golf club.
Sidewalk chalk	Calcite chalk	No	Calcium sulfate (gypsum)	Used for making marks on pavement or rocks. (e.g., for entertainment, for temporary signs or indicators).
Rubber duck	Rubber	No	Vinyl plastics	A children's bath toy. Also used in science and programming.
Paper money (title text)	Paper	Yes, but usually cotton paper	Cotton, linen fibers (U.S. note), polypropylene.

Many of the objects listed on Cueball's shopping list can still be made with the materials that they are named after. Silverware can be made of sterling silver, especially in the cutlery of high-end establishments^{[actual citation needed]}, but, unlike steel, traditional pure silver requires continued polishing to retain its finish. Cleaning sponges made of sea sponges are expensive, but can be purchased. Linens made from flax are still common; some people even consider whether flax is the better material. Some wood clubs are still made from wood, specifically persimmon. Banknotes of the Japanese yen are still made from wood fiber from E. chrysantha and abaca pulp. Most of the traditional items can be found in antique sales at least occasionally, and some people still use them such as in communities that have separated from modern industry.

Transcript

This transcript is incomplete: Do NOT delete this tag too soon. If you can fix this issue, edit the page!

[Cueball is looking at a phone, or perhaps a piece of paper, in his hand while holding his other hand on the handle of a shopping cart. Above the shopping cart, an underlined header and a bullet list are shown:]

Shopping List

• Tin Foil
• Sponges
• Silverware
• Linens
• Iron & Ironing Board
• Reading Glasses
• 9 Iron & 3 Wood
• Sidewalk Chalk
• Rubber Duck

[Caption below the panel:]

I'm trying to do a shopping trip where I only buy stuff that's no longer made from the material it's named after.

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Discussion

Shouldn't "Anachronym" be "Anachronism"? The listed items aren't archaic acronyms. 162.158.63.83 17:30, 11 April 2025 (UTC)

No, "-nym" means name, so this is names that are outdated 104.23.190.60 17:36, 11 April 2025 (UTC)

(The OP) Ah, I see now. An anachronym is a term used in an anachronistic way (like tin foil which isn't made of tin anymore), where an anacronym is an word that started as an acronym but is now treated as a word (people no longer think of it as an acronym). Neither term being in common parlance, and being only one letter different, my search for a definition got them confused.172.70.35.94 00:20, 12 April 2025 (UTC)

I'm not sure why he should be paying with paper money. He can easily pay by credit card ... using virtual debit card on his phone. -- Hkmaly (talk) 17:46, 11 April 2025 (UTC)

Paper money might not be made from paper anymore - at least, it isn't in NZ, where I live. 172.69.0.130 17:53, 11 April 2025 (UTC)

I think “paper money” is about paper no longer being made from papyrus. US bank notes are printed on rag paper, which is indeed a kind of paper despite containing little or no wood pulp.--Seakingsoyuz (talk) 18:20, 11 April 2025 (UTC)

Agreed. Rag paper is not just "a kind of paper", it's the original kind of paper (papyrus is not paper in any usual sense, because it is not made from pulped fibers). When paper was invented in China, it was made from rag fibers, and it was still made like that when it was first produced in Europe.

I don't think 'paper money' should be designated as being made of paper here. Everyone knows that paper money doesn't feel or act like paper. It's incredibly hard to rip. DollarStoreBa'al (talk) 18:27, 11 April 2025 (UTC)

Being Canadian, I thought the reference here was to what's described at Wikipedia as Polymer banknotes. --162.158.127.25 18:28, 12 April 2025 (UTC)

The "card" in credit card seems to come from Latin and Greek for a piece of paper or papyrus. So a credit card, now made of plastic, metal, semiconductors, etc. might be considered an anachronym. 162.158.41.95 19:20, 11 April 2025 (UTC)

Adults who "enjoy" rubber ducks include programmers: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubber_duck_debugging 172.71.95.27 18:40, 11 April 2025 (UTC)

The word money came from words that meant coin. The word coin evidently came from wedge shaped. Not quite anachronym, though somewhat anachronism. 162.158.41.95 19:11, 11 April 2025 (UTC)

Surprised "lead pencil" didn't make the list 172.68.12.109 19:13, 11 April 2025 (UTC)

Not quite the same category. The core of wooden pencils never contained lead, that was always a misnomer by people who didn't know it was actually carbon. ChaoticNeutralCzech (talk) 08:07, 14 April 2025 (UTC)

Duck Tape is no longer made from ducks! IIVQ (talk) 19:30, 11 April 2025 (UTC)

"digital money" shouldn't be listed as what "paper money" is actually made out of. Nobody would say "I'm paying with paper money" if they are paying with some digital currency. The anachronism is "paper money" being actually made of linen or whatever hi-tech fibers. 172.70.254.211 19:49, 11 April 2025 (UTC) anonymous user

Not even fibers. Sheet-polymers (with loads of complex embedded and pressed-in features) are becoming the new go-to for banknotes, in a number of countries. 172.68.205.135 23:24, 11 April 2025 (UTC)

My wife suggests that this is much easier if you are tech shopping: Apple, Mouse, Spam, Phish, Cookies.162.158.78.225 20:03, 11 April 2025 (UTC)

"Click mouse to accept cookie" meme - featuring rodent and confection. https://i.pinimg.com/originals/06/e6/7d/06e67d6ee5a2afa112bf548463e97125.jpg 172.70.35.94 00:20, 12 April 2025 (UTC)

That's not in the same category since computer mice were never made of actual mice. Anyway, I'm sure there are some examples in tech: compressed air (gas duster) cans do not actually contain nitrogen or oxygen but a mixture of hydrocarbon gases that can be liquified at pressures obtainable in a cheap can to drastically increase the volume ratio, but I can imagine people might have used actual pressurized air containers for dusting at some point (though likely not commercially). ChaoticNeutralCzech (talk) 08:07, 14 April 2025 (UTC)

Not sure why "sidewalk chalk" on there and who decides that calcium carbonate is allowed to be called chalk, but calcium sulphate is not. --108.162.216.196 05:25, 12 April 2025 (UTC)

I came here wondering why it was on the list, but for a different reason: It's never been made from sidewalks. Yes, I actually needed to read the list to clear up the misconception. --162.158.127.25 18:28, 12 April 2025 (UTC)

Because, other than the use we give it as "thing you write on blackboards with", chalk is originally a stone made of relatively loose calciulm carbonate (limestone mostly made from foraminifers), which is what was used to write on slate blackboards before we started making them out of pressed gypsum. --172.64.238.130

Steel

Stainless steel does contain Fe, so "iron" ain't that "wrong". 172.70.35.95 05:48, 12 April 2025 (UTC)

We have long made a distinction between "iron" and "steel", not to mention that, while stainless steel has about 1% carbon by weight (give or take: sometime more, sometimes less), since carbon is over 4 times lighter than iron, that makes about 4% (and up to 10%) of the atoms carbon, not to mention that, to be stainless, it has to either have a by weight composition of either over 10% chromium or over 8% nickel, which are almost the same weight as iron (a difference of around 5%, lower for chromium, higher for nickel). Given that the average stainless steel has a 18% by weight of chromium, adding that with the carbon means that only 3 out of 4 atoms are iron, and if you have copper and tin or copper and tin in that same ratio, it would long have surpassed the line to be called "bronze" or "brass", respectively. "Having iron atoms" is not the same as "made of iron", mainly when it originally was indeed made out of (wrought) iron. --188.114.111.245

99% is a way higher percentage than say, the amount of nickel in nickels ($0.05 coins): 25% (US) or 2% (Canadian). The latter might qualify for this list because it actually used to be made of near-pure nickel, while the US coin's composition never changed since the first (1866) version that became known as the "nickel". ChaoticNeutralCzech (talk) 11:48, 14 April 2025 (UTC)

Steel (stainless or otherwise) does not occur naturally. It has to be made. By humans. Out of iron. So in this case 'having iron atoms' DOES mean 'made of (as a synonym of 'from') iron'. 172.70.86.129 04:11, 14 April 2025 (UTC)

Bronze contains mostly copper. So I assume you would call it copper, too. --162.158.130.67 11:15, 14 April 2025 (UTC)

"Cutlery" specifically refers to metallic implements with a cutting edge. Knives, scissors, and swords are cutlery; Spoons and forks are not cutlery. Table knives, forks, and spoons, collectively are "flatware". 162.158.164.155 10:01, 12 April 2025 (UTC)

I was really hoping to re-edit that element, anyway. The comic says "silverware" which can relate to cutlery/other food-implements or to the plates or candlesticks or even trophies. Someone assumed that meant cutlery(+dining implements in general). As well as other improvable writing about the assumption they went with. 172.70.58.49 22:58, 12 April 2025 (UTC)

I assume the confusion comes from the respecive British and American terms for a collection of forks, knives, and spoons. British English calls these things "cutlery" even if they don't have a cutting edge. American English commonly refers to these as "silverware," especially when made with stainless steel, although I have also heard the term "plastic silverware" or "wooden silverware" when "flatware" would probably have been a more accurate generic term. 172.70.163.35 18:09, 13 April 2025 (UTC) (an American expat)

Paper

I just want to point out that paper made from cotton fibers instead of wood pulp is still paper. You can buy it in the store. There are non-paper banknotes now, but not in the U.S., and I'd be surprised if polymer banknotes were ever called "paper money". LtPowers (talk) 12:35, 12 April 2025 (UTC)

Be surprised. That's what they're usually called in Canada. --162.158.127.164 18:29, 12 April 2025 (UTC)

And anywhere with polymer bills. "Paper money" = bills. Still, it's true that cotton-linen paper is still paper, so is hemp paper and any other paper made from cellulose fibers (paper can be categorized by cellulose source, average fiber length, thickness, impurities and papermaking method). You can even make paper out of old clothes made from vegetable textiles (like blue jeans, cotton T-shirts or hemp pants). As a weird side note, there are non-cellulose papers, like silk paper, but they are made in the same way as regular paper (which is not how plymer bills are made, to my understanding)--188.114.111.245

Yeah, I've always heard of it as "paper money" --<b><i>xnerkcd</b></i> (talk) 07:10, 13 April 2025 (UTC)
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