Talk:3075: Anachronym Challenge - Revision history

ChaoticNeutralCzech: /* Any more actual examples? */ new section

2025-05-28T09:27:55Z

‎Any more actual examples?: new section

162.158.74.68 at 15:00, 11 May 2025

2025-05-11T15:00:51Z

162.158.186.119: Paper, plastic, or copper?

2025-05-11T03:57:03Z

Paper, plastic, or copper?

188.114.111.47 at 11:35, 3 May 2025

2025-05-03T11:35:47Z

172.70.207.171: Sidewalk chalk is PEOPLE!

2025-04-24T02:41:22Z

Sidewalk chalk is PEOPLE!

172.70.58.50 at 20:50, 18 April 2025

2025-04-18T20:50:51Z

104.23.187.48 at 20:00, 18 April 2025

2025-04-18T20:00:02Z

The Yeti at 20:44, 17 April 2025

2025-04-17T20:44:38Z

The Yeti at 20:38, 17 April 2025

2025-04-17T20:38:19Z

172.71.178.97 at 16:09, 17 April 2025

2025-04-17T16:09:05Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 09:27, 28 May 2025
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	Ironing boards obviously came from use of irons. As irons aren't iron anymore, ironing board is also anachronistic. Quite often aluminium foil is refered to as 'silver foil', which is both not true (not made of silver), but also true (silver colour). And then there are people who still open 'tin cans' (but not). [[User:The Yeti\|The Yeti]] ([[User talk:The Yeti\|talk]]) 20:38, 17 April 2025 (UTC)		Ironing boards obviously came from use of irons. As irons aren't iron anymore, ironing board is also anachronistic. Quite often aluminium foil is refered to as 'silver foil', which is both not true (not made of silver), but also true (silver colour). And then there are people who still open 'tin cans' (but not). [[User:The Yeti\|The Yeti]] ([[User talk:The Yeti\|talk]]) 20:38, 17 April 2025 (UTC)
	:"Tin cans" always were "tinplate steel", which is, well, ''exactly what it says on the tin'': steel, plated with tin. And according to the fount of truth, Wikipedia, tinplate still is used, particularly on cans with nastily reactive contents (e.g. very acidic); other cans use plastic liners or even enameled metal. (I don't know where, this was years and years ago, but I recall seeing a remark from someone with industry knowledge that the hardest thing to can (as in most hostile to the can and linings) was in fact ''rhubarb''. --[[Special:Contributions/172.70.207.171\|172.70.207.171]] 02:41, 24 April 2025 (UTC)		:"Tin cans" always were "tinplate steel", which is, well, ''exactly what it says on the tin'': steel, plated with tin. And according to the fount of truth, Wikipedia, tinplate still is used, particularly on cans with nastily reactive contents (e.g. very acidic); other cans use plastic liners or even enameled metal. (I don't know where, this was years and years ago, but I recall seeing a remark from someone with industry knowledge that the hardest thing to can (as in most hostile to the can and linings) was in fact ''rhubarb''. --[[Special:Contributions/172.70.207.171\|172.70.207.171]] 02:41, 24 April 2025 (UTC)
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		+	== Any more ''actual'' examples? ==
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		+	Note that lots of items (such as pencil lead) were never made of things they were named after, and they were always misnomers. These don't qualify so please check this beforehand!<br />I'm adding '''{{w\|Marble_(toy)#History\|marbles}}''' because they were actually made of marble at some point (and still are in small quantities). [[User:ChaoticNeutralCzech\|ChaoticNeutralCzech]] ([[User talk:ChaoticNeutralCzech\|talk]]) 09:27, 28 May 2025 (UTC)

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 :::"Pencil lead" got that name because various people in ye olde days, pre-modern chemistry, erroneously thought it was indeed lead, since it looked sort of similar to tarnished lead (what lead looks like after exposed to air for a while; a "fresh" lead surface is shiny like most metals are "natively").
 :::As for the ancient Roman world, the short-term writing medium of choice was wax tablets, made using beeswax in a wood frame. A wood stylus was used to inscribe into the wax. To erase it for reuse, you heated it and smoothed out the wax. Wood and bark slips were used at times as well where available. I'm not saying it never happened, but I'm not under the impression slate stone was a widespread writing material then. Stone is relatively labor-intensive to quarry and prepare (thus expensive) and of course heavy. They wrote stuff down in stone of course, but stuff they wanted to last, chiseled in, not ephemeral stuff. For "medium-term" stuff they had papyrus, clay tablets, leather, parchment. --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.186.119|162.158.186.119]] 03:57, 11 May 2025 (UTC)
 Duck Tape is no longer made from ducks! [[User:IIVQ|IIVQ]] ([[User talk:IIVQ|talk]]) 19:30, 11 April 2025 (UTC)

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 :: 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. [[User:DollarStoreBa&#39;al|DollarStoreBa&#39;al]] ([[User talk:DollarStoreBa&#39;al|talk]]) 18:27, 11 April 2025 (UTC)
 ::: Being Canadian, I thought the reference here was to what's described at Wikipedia as [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polymer_banknote Polymer banknotes]. --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.127.25|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.  [[Special:Contributions/162.158.41.95|162.158.41.95]] 19:20, 11 April 2025 (UTC)
 :I don't think anybody's made sense of or convincingly explained the title text. Paper money actually is basically made of paper. Maybe that's the joke and why it's in the title text. Is there anywhere teaching that paper money isn't made of paper? Maybe it used to be made of the same paper we use for writing on, like IOUs. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.158.93|162.158.158.93]] 21:23, 14 April 2025 (UTC)
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 :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. [[User:ChaoticNeutralCzech|ChaoticNeutralCzech]] ([[User talk:ChaoticNeutralCzech|talk]]) 08:07, 14 April 2025 (UTC)
 ::I thought soft metals like lead did work for writing with though, functioning similarly to the graphite in a pencil but possibly needing a rougher surface like chalk does. I'm surprised the name isn't from actual use as I had informally learned it was. I think I tested it by writing with lead solder. In ancient Rome people would write on rougher slate, not sure what they used to write on the slate with though. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.159.36|162.158.159.36]] 21:20, 14 April 2025 (UTC)
 Duck Tape is no longer made from ducks! [[User:IIVQ|IIVQ]] ([[User talk:IIVQ|talk]]) 19:30, 11 April 2025 (UTC)
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 :::If you can call an alloy by the name of its main metal component by weight, by the same token paper and plastic are the same thing, as they are both carbon-based polymers. It's splitting hairs.--[[Special:Contributions/188.114.111.47|188.114.111.47]]
 ::Bronze contains mostly copper. So I assume you would call it copper, too. --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.130.67|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". [[Special:Contributions/162.158.164.155|162.158.164.155]] 10:01, 12 April 2025 (UTC)

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 :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. --[[Special:Contributions/188.114.111.245|188.114.111.245]]
 ::99% is a way higher percentage than say, the amount of nickel in nickels ($0.05 coins): 25% ({{w|Nickel (United States coin)|US}}) or 2% ({{w|Nickel (Canadian coin)|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". [[User:ChaoticNeutralCzech|ChaoticNeutralCzech]] ([[User talk: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'. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.129|172.70.86.129]] 04:11, 14 April 2025 (UTC)
 ::Bronze contains mostly copper. So I assume you would call it copper, too. --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.130.67|162.158.130.67]] 11:15, 14 April 2025 (UTC)

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 ::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. --[[Special:Contributions/172.64.238.130|172.64.238.130]]
 ::Calcium carbonate chalk is still produced (mostly for mathematicians). Search for "Hagoromo Fulltouch." {{unsigned ip|172.71.190.234|15:47, 17 April 2025}}
 You can still buy solid cast-iron irons. Although I doubt anyone actually uses them for smoothing clothes, more for decoration. [[User:SDSpivey|SDSpivey]] ([[User talk:SDSpivey|talk]]) 16:23, 14 April 2025 (UTC)
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 Ironing boards obviously came from use of irons. As irons aren't iron anymore, ironing board is also anachronistic. Quite often aluminium foil is refered to as 'silver foil', which is both not true (not made of silver), but also true (silver colour). And then there are people who still open 'tin cans' (but not). [[User:The Yeti|The Yeti]] ([[User talk:The Yeti|talk]]) 20:38, 17 April 2025 (UTC)

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 :::Yeah, I've always heard of it as "paper money" --[[User:Xnerkcd|&#60;b&#62;&#60;i&#62;xnerkcd&#60;/b&#62;&#60;/i&#62;]] ([[User talk:Xnerkcd|talk]]) 07:10, 13 April 2025 (UTC)
 ::::I have a different comment on the "money" section, namely that the thin. flat, wrinkleable stuff nowadays are not (at least not in the US) "promissory notes", and they haven't been since the Silver Certificates went out of circulation. No one makes any promises about them, other than that they are legal for paying debts. The stuff nowadays would be better called "fiat money", or perhaps someone else can offer a better term.
 Ironing boards obviously came from use of irons. As irons aren't iron anymore, ironing board is also anachronistic. Quite often aluminium foil is refered to as 'silver foil', which is both not true (not made of silver), but also true (silver colour). And then there are people who still open 'tin cans' (but not). [[User:The Yeti|The Yeti]] ([[User talk:The Yeti|talk]]) 20:38, 17 April 2025 (UTC)

← Older revision		Revision as of 20:44, 17 April 2025
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−	Ironing boards obviously came from use of irons. As irons aren't iron anymore, ironing board is also anachronistic. Quite often aluminium foil is refered to as 'silver foil', which is both not true (not made of silver), but also true (silver colour). [[User:The Yeti\|The Yeti]] ([[User talk:The Yeti\|talk]]) 20:38, 17 April 2025 (UTC)	+	Ironing boards obviously came from use of irons. As irons aren't iron anymore, ironing board is also anachronistic. Quite often aluminium foil is refered to as 'silver foil', which is both not true (not made of silver), but also true (silver colour). And then there are people who still open 'tin cans' (but not). [[User:The Yeti\|The Yeti]] ([[User talk:The Yeti\|talk]]) 20:38, 17 April 2025 (UTC)

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 :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.  [[Special:Contributions/162.158.41.95|162.158.41.95]] 19:20, 11 April 2025 (UTC)
 :I don't think anybody's made sense of or convincingly explained the title text. Paper money actually is basically made of paper. Maybe that's the joke and why it's in the title text. Is there anywhere teaching that paper money isn't made of paper? Maybe it used to be made of the same paper we use for writing on, like IOUs. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.158.93|162.158.158.93]] 21:23, 14 April 2025 (UTC)
 :I think I figured it out. The article focuses heavily on actual production, but Randall doesn't mean that the original products no longer exist, he means that they aren't what stores are selling. Thinking on this I realized that paper money is like that too -- it's no longer backed by gold or silver. I added a sentence to the article to say this using the concept "fake" like "imitation porcelain". [[Special:Contributions/162.158.159.135|162.158.159.135]] 21:36, 14 April 2025 (UTC)
 :The same person (me) wrote both of these posts but the IP addresses are changed by the server. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.158.16|162.158.158.16]] 21:40, 14 April 2025 (UTC)
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 ::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)--[[Special:Contributions/188.114.111.245|188.114.111.245]]
 :::Yeah, I've always heard of it as "paper money" --[[User:Xnerkcd|&#60;b&#62;&#60;i&#62;xnerkcd&#60;/b&#62;&#60;/i&#62;]] ([[User talk:Xnerkcd|talk]]) 07:10, 13 April 2025 (UTC)