Misnomer Quotes & Sayings

It goes back to keeping things equal. Friendship feels really demeaning if one person still likes the other more,
which is probably what caused the breakup in the first place. It's such a misnomer that 'boyfriend' and 'girlfriend' have the word 'friend' in them."

"I don't know, Dom. It's screwed up that people who dug each other enough to go out can't at least stay friends
afterward.

"Spoken by a true love virgin. — Daria Snadowsky

For generations people have called natural disasters "acts of God." This has been a misnomer. Eons ago, God the Father conceded control of Earth's weather to Satan himself, the prince and power of the air. God allowed destruction and death by natural phenomena, yes, because of the fall of man. And no doubt God at times intervened against such actions by the evil one because of the fervent prayers of his people. — Tim LaHaye

I always have believed that we should not call it an Arab-Israeli issue or a Palestinian-Arab dispute or a peace negotiation. I think we should call it what it is: an occupation of Palestine, full stop. This is not a popular position in mixed company. — Talal Abu-Ghazaleh

Pro-choice' is a misnomer. There is not really an issue of choice at all. It is against the law to cut short someone's life, period. To say that a fetus is not a life is to split hairs, since all major bodily systems are in place at the time most abortions are undertaken. To say that it is a woman's right to choose is also unclear, because it is not only her body but another's as well. In a society that stands behind the best interests of a child, it seems strange indeed — Jodi Picoult

Global warming is actually a misnomer. It should be global extremes and global swings, because you add - as you add more energy into the atmosphere, it sloshes around. Energy doesn't simply uniformly warm up the planet. And that means droughts in one area, enormous snowstorms in another area, 100-year floods here, 100-year forest fires there. — Michio Kaku

The term "solar eclipse" is in fact a misnomer. An eclipse occurs when one object passes into a shadow cast by another. In a solar eclipse, the moon does not pass into the sun's shadow, but instead passes between the sun and the earth, obscuring the sun - — Guillermo Del Toro

'War on terror' is a misnomer. It would be like calling America's involvement in World War II a 'war on kamikazism.' Terrorism, like kamikazism, is a tactic. — Dinesh D'Souza

There is no such thing as an attention span. There is only the quality of what you are viewing. This whole idea of an attention span is, I think, a misnomer. People have an infinite attention span if you are entertaining them. — Jerry Seinfeld

I've come to believe that the word 'disabled' is a misnomer. 'Disabled' implies that you are broken beyond use. No longer functional. I'm quite abled. — Ilona Andrews

The misnomer is that satirists are pessimists, or even misanthropes, but usually it is just a way to unlock human potential. — Marietta Rodgers

An education which does not teach us to discriminate between good and bad, to assimilate the one and eschew the other, is a misnomer — Mahatma Gandhi

The term Greek philosophy, to begin with is a misnomer, for there is no such philosophy in existence. The ancient Egyptians had developed a very complex religious system, called the Mysteries, which was also the first system of salvation. As such, it regarded the human body as a prison house of the soul, which could be liberated from its bodily impediments, through the disciplines of the Arts and Sciences, and advanced from the level of a mortal to that of a God. — George G. M. James

The term 'young adults' which is so often used today seems to me a misnomer, and one which, if taken seriously, may lead the adolescent into misunderstanding as to his nature and his role in life. 'Young he is; 'adult' he is not. — Eleanor Roosevelt

I think in the '70s that there was a general feeling of chaos, a feeling that the idea of the '60s as 'ideal' was a misnomer. Nothing seemed ideal anymore. Everything seemed in-between. — David Bowie

Perhaps the most legitimately dispiriting thing about reciprocal altruism is that it is a misnomer. Whereas with kin selection the "goal" of our genes is to actually help another organism, with reciprocal altruism the goal is that the organism be left under the impression that we've helped; the impression alone is enough to bring the reciprocation. — Robert Wright

Breaking news gently is a misnomer. News doesn't break, people do, no matter how you try to cushion the blow. — Erica O'Rourke

First of all, the Big Bang wasn't very big. Second of all, there was no bang. Third, Big Bang Theory doesn't tell you what banged, when it banged, how it banged. It just said it did bang. So the Big Bang theory in some sense is a total misnomer. — Michio Kaku

The race thing is sort of a misnomer. It's just the human race, right? That's it. The rest of it, and racism, is socially constructed. Nobody is born racist, no one. What happens is other things that are usually based on power, money, feeling good about yourself, or bad about yourself, those things play into hating other people for whatever reason. — Toni Morrison

Man's indecency to man all over the world rules out the idea of humanity as an actuality. It is a dream of young idealists. In practice a misnomer — Errol Flynn

Made no mistake: America is a Christian nation. The bedrock of our theo-democracy is our Judeo-Christian values. that term, by the way, is a bit of a misnomer. It implies that Christianity and Judaism are equal. — Stephen Colbert

Finding oneself was a misnomer; a self is not found but made. — Jacques Barzun

It must be said that "winning" the green card is a misnomer. We had simply won the right to formally apply and have our application processed. We still had to pay for all the processing. — Gudjon Bergmann

This disease leaves people bedridden. I've gone through phases where I couldn't roll over in bed. I couldn't speak. To have it called 'fatigue' is a gross misnomer. — Laura Hillenbrand

Anything short of getting to a place where we can be put up as ambassadors of Heaven is a misnomer. — Bidemi Mark-Mordi

Life is of course a misnomer, since viruses, lacking the ability to eat or respire, are officially dead, which is in itself intriguing, showing as it does that the habit of predation can be taken up by clusters of molecules that are in no way alive. — Barbara Ehrenreich

A few patients do bleed to death, Rollin said, but "they don't explode, and they don't melt." In fact, he said, the conventional term then in use, "Ebola hemorrhagic fever," was itself a misnomer, because more than half the patients don't bleed at all. They die of other causes, such as respiratory distress and shutdown (but not dissolution) of internal organs. It's for just these reasons, as cited by Rollin, that the WHO has switched its own terminology from "Ebola hemorrhagic fever" to "Ebola virus disease. — David Quammen

I can barely feel my arms now, and my shoulders are sore, but I take deep breaths and keep going. Every few seconds I alternate hands and lick them. "Hand job" is such a misnomer for this full-body routine. It's like I'm a one-man band. — Daria Snadowsky

Legal ethics is a misnomer ... lawyers conducting themselves legally are not necessarily conducting themselves morally ." ... and ... "The zero sum nature of the legal system, combined with the universal adoption of zealotry as the marching orders of practioners and prosecutors, transforms the moral mission of the legal system from one of truth-seeking, storytelling, and justice, to one of fabrication, distortion, and manipulation in pursuit of victory. These victories, however, make us all losers. — Thane Rosenbaum

The 'Desert' sweeps up to the walls of Baghdad, but it is a misnomer to call the vast level of rich, stoneless, alluvial soil a desert. It is a dead flat of uninhabited earth; orange colocynth balls, a little wormwood, and some alkaline plants which camels eat, being its chief products. After the inundations, reedy grass grows in the hollows. — Isabella Bird

Some have called we rock and roll performers who never retire 'troubadours.' I enjoy this misnomer immensely. While there are many differences between me and my distant predecessors in L'Occitane, I do believe there is a lineage that connects us of the last 70 years with those romantic singers of the High Middle Ages. — Frank Black

The phrase onenight stand is a misnomer. There is no such thing as a onenight stand. Sometimes, what you do for one night destroys your future. — Anonymous

The Kundalini resides in the base of the spine. It's a bit of a misnomer because the kundalini really is not so much in the physical body, as in what we call the subtle physical body, the body of energy. — Frederick Lenz

Basically if you study entrepreneurs, there is a misnomer: People think that entrepreneurs take risk, and they get rewarded because they take risk. In reality entrepreneurs do everything they can to minimize risk. They are not interested in taking risk. They want free lunches and they go after free lunches. — Mohnish Pabrai

Several elements of the ADD mind favor creativity ... As mentioned earlier, the term 'attention deficit' is a misnomer. It is a matter of attention inconsistency. While it is true that the ADD mind wanders when not engaged, it is also the case that the ADD mind fastens on to its subject fiercely when it is engaged. A child with ADD may sit for hours meticulously putting together a model airplane. — Edward Hallowell

Yoga is a big misnomer in the west, people don't know what this yoga is. Yoga means union with the divine. When you become one with the divine, the divine starts flowing through you and you become part and parcel of the whole. — Nirmala Srivastava

I have often wondered how this circumpolar stars between the Drago and the Lion came to be known as the Great Bear. The ancient Egyptians called them the Unwearied Ones or the Rowers of the Ships of Ra. I prefer the Plough or the Wain or even the Big Dipper. The name of the Septriones, the proud walkers, grips the imagination, but the Great Bear is a plain misnomer. — John Hillaby

Protectionism is a misnomer. The only people protected by tariffs, quotas and trade restrictions are those engaged in uneconomic and wasteful activity. Free trade is the only philosophy compatible with international peace and prosperity. — Walter Block

I am hard at work on the second draft ... Second draft is really a misnomer as there are a gazillion revisions, large and small, that go into the writing of a book. — Libba Bray

We really wake up every day trying to build businesses. That is the goal of private equity. It's a misnomer out there that private equity profits by shrinking companies. In fact, it's just the opposite. Private equity creates value by growing great companies. — Stephen Pagliuca

Killing oneself is, anyway, a misnomer. We don't kill ourselves. We are simply defeated by the long, hard struggle to stay alive. When somebody dies after a long illness, people are apt to say, with a note of approval, "He fought so hard." And they are inclined to think, about a suicide, that no fight was involved, that somebody simply gave up. This is quite wrong. — Sally Brampton

Stop using the word 'Negro.' The word is a misnomer from every point of view. It does not represent a country or anything else ... I am an African-American. — Mary Church Terrell

Her loss had left her lost. Loss? Such a misnomer. Nothing was lost. Something was taken. She felt robbed, like someone had broken into her life and stolen her valuables. It wasn't a loss. It was a theft. And she knew she would never get it back. — Tiffany Reisz

Fun-run" indeed,what a misnomer. That'd be like saying "calm gremlin" or "pleasant hag." Or 'entertaining history textbook. — Kiersten White

Maybe we don't recognize satisfaction because it is disguised as radical generosity, a strange misnomer in a consumer culture. — Jen Hatmaker

As I write in my book, there is a misnomer that destroying another person's position is an effective and practical way to negotiate. — Leigh Steinberg

A rose by any other name may smell as sweet, but a woman called by a devaluing name will only be weakened by the misnomer. — Maya Angelou

The word, 'issues,' is perhaps a misnomer, a gross understatement, or a pale and withered description for very real psychological illnesses and emotional losses. Nevertheless, "post-adoption issues" is a catch-all phrase, and at least it avoid pathologizing adoptees. — Laura Dennis

If you analyze it I believe the very heart and soul of conservatism is libertarianism. I think conservatism is really a misnomer just as liberalism is a misnomer for the liberals - if we were back in the days of the Revolution, so-called conservatives today would be the Liberals and the liberals would be the Tories. The basis of conservatism is a desire for less government interference or less centralized authority or more individual freedom and this is a pretty general description also of what libertarianism is. — Ronald Reagan

And Nerites told her what virginity was all about.He said that his sisters were all virgins before they coupled with the Gods, Dactyls & Cabiri & that those who were thus deflowered had lost their maidenheads with their maidenhood. And he told her that his sisters, Melite, Thalia & Polynoe were still virgins. The flesh within their little cups looked more like the meat of oysters, rather than flowers, & he opined that calling the maidenhead a flower was probably a misnomer.It should be called an oyster. — Nicholas Chong

The Concept of Internal and External Stressor is a Misnomer. All Stress is Created Finally Through an Internal Mechanism Mediated by Our Thoughts. — Kiran Dintyala

If there ever was a misnomer, it is "exact science." Science has always been full of mistakes. The present day is no exception. And our mistakes are good mistakes; they require a genius to correct. Of course, we do not see our own mistakes. — Edward Teller

It's kind of a misnomer about science fiction that science fiction is about anything other than people. It's about people doing stuff, sometimes doing extraordinary stuff. — Greg Bear

There is no such thing as a "social gospel." It is a misnomer. There is only one Gospel. "If any man preach any other gospel unto you ...
let him be accursed" [Galatians 1:9 KJV]. — Billy Graham

It is a misnomer to call a government republican in which a branch of the supreme power is independent of the nation. — Thomas Jefferson

Time management is a misnomer, the challenge is to manage ourselves. — Stephen Covey