things you thought you knew but really didn't

[butters]

like, i always thought the word buddleia had an 'h' in it somewhere, but of course it doesn't

 

[theognis]

I was taught humans have only five senses, and without really thinking about it, I believed it for a long time.

 

[badjanus]

I thought you could see the great wall of China from space.

 

[butters]

I thought you could see the great wall of China from space.

http://geography.about.com/library/faq/blqzgreatwall.htm

From a low orbit of the earth, many artificial objects are visible on the earth, such as highways, ships in the sea, railroads, cities, fields of crops, and even some individual buildings. While at a low orbit, the Great Wall of China can be seen from space but it is not unique in that regard.

Furthermore, when leaving the earth's orbit and acquiring an altitude of more than a few thousand miles, no man-made objects are visible at all. NASA says, "The Great Wall can barely be seen from the Shuttle, so it would not be possible to see it from the Moon with the naked eye."

so, looks like you can from a low orbit but that's about as good as it gets

 

[butters]

from when i first read the word to finding out it wasn't pronounced the way i thought it was, i believed 'coelocanth' was pronounced kO la canth. it was a little embarrassing at 16 to find out i'd been using it wrong for all of about 2 years

see-la-canth

 

[theognis]

from when i first read the word to finding out it wasn't pronounced the way i thought it was, i believed 'coelocanth' was pronounced kO la canth. it was a little embarrassing at 16 to find out i'd been using it wrong for all of about 2 years

see-la-canth

I can beat that, easily. I distinctly remember finding out the 'w' in the word 'sword' is silent, and being genuinely surprised about it. All the kids I knew pronounced the 'w' in the word as we fought our mighty battles with our pretend swords. The world was never the same after I started school.

 

[Angeline]

I used to think the word "nostalgia" was pronounced to sound like this:

nah/stuh/loj/uh

and I thought that was how to say it until someone heard me and said "What the hell are you talking about?" I think I was a teenager then. My reading would get ahead of my ability to pronounce things. And at the time I had poor dictionary habits lol.

 

[UnderYourSpell]

I was sure Elton John was singing 'Hold me closer Tony Danza'

 

[painful_rapture]

I volunteered in a medical office during my senior year of high school. I started working with copiers for the first time and didn't realize that the 'facsimile' button was the same thing as a 'fax'. I made the mistake of saying 'fash-i-mile' when asking about it. That gave all of the ladies in the office something to giggle about for the day

The hubby (when we were dating) used the word epitome but said 'epi-tohm'. Oh, and when he talked about his friend in the marine corps, but called it the marine corpse. That was pretty funny. Said friend was talking about doppelgangers one time, and kept saying goppelganger.

When I worked at a department store, I was helping a couple of teenagers asking about the fox fur vest on display. We didn't sell real fur on anything, so I went to see which piece they were asking about. It was faux fur. They were so confused when I told them that it meant the fur was fake and was pronounced like 'foe'. They just kept pointing at the label saying it was 'fox' fur.

I also had a friend who was convinced that exits were called 'outrances'. Opposed to an entrance, which she thought was 'intrance'.

While these word mix-ups can be embarrassing, they're entertaining as well

 

[Tsotha]

"nostalgia"

"epitome"

When I use English to read them, I come up with the folowing:

nos|TAL|gia
e|pi|TOME

Otherwise, with portuguese:

nos|tal|GI|a
e|PÍ|to|me

(It seems epitome in English reads e|PI|to|me, just like in portuguese. Hm.)

 

[UnderYourSpell]

When I use English to read them, I come up with the folowing:

nos|TAL|gia
e|pi|TOME

Otherwise, with portuguese:

nos|tal|GI|a
e|PÍ|to|me

(It seems epitome in English reads e|PI|to|me, just like in portuguese. Hm.)

EEEEE..PIT...TOME ... EEEEEEEEEE

 

[pelegrino]

I also had a friend who was convinced that exits were called 'outrances'. Opposed to an entrance, which she thought was 'intrance'.

While these word mix-ups can be embarrassing, they're entertaining as well

"INTRODUCTION" as a musical term abbreviated to "INTRO" has given birth, mainly in rock music to the musical term "OUTRO" which of course is complete nonsense, but funny.
What the rockers want to imply is usually the fading away of a piece or a recording in which case the term "perdendosi" , meaning a reduction in dynamics should be used, or a repeat of the first theme in which case any other term like, "coda" or "recapitulation", or "D.C. al Fine" should be used.
But, long live "outro" as long as long lives rock 'n' roll!