language

I used to believe…

When I was little I used to believe that if you told a lie, your nose would grow in length.

I used to believe…

When I was little I saw the word "applause" and thought it said "applesauce"

I used to believe…

Because of Beauty and the Beast, I thought that "provincial" meant "boring" because she sings, "I want much more than this provincial life!".

It also made me think "primeval" meant "prime evil", e.g really bad, because Belle uses that word to describe Gaston.

I used to believe…

At 31 I moved from Italy to London, UK. I used to believe that the phrase "out of spit" was a particularly graphic and rather dramatic way of expressing one's animosity and vengeful intententions. Only 8 years later, after moving back to Italy, I eventually realized that one is supposed to say "out of spite".

I used to believe…

There's a website called TV Tropes that has a trope called "Heroic BSoD", which means a hero has an emotional breakdown.

Because of this, I thought BSoD was a disorder, like OCD or PTSD, that meant you were prone to emotional breakdowns.

Later, I learnt that it's actually an abbreviation for Blue Screen of Death.

I thought for a long time that the word "awry" was pronounced like "aw-ree" (rhymes with sorry) , instead of "uh-rye". The weird part? I had heard people say it lots of times, but it took ages before I realized it was the same word

I used to believe went I was a kid that everyone spoke all the same language.but when I grew up I understood that each country has Its own language.

I used to think that weasel was short for wooden easel, and was confused as to why someone would be called a piece of art equipment as an insult.

I used to believe that people who don’t understand English can’t talk.

I used to believe…

Assuming that the word fraud has German origins, I used to get it confused with Freud, and wondered how it made a connection together. Maybe a scientific bank crime, to be imaginative?

I used to believe…

A kid at my summer camp told me that infinity was written as a one and thirty-six zeros. (That's actually an undecillion (short scale) or a sextillion (long scale, formerly used in the U.K.).)

I used to think monk was short for monkey.

I thought "prison" and "prism" are the same words as each other.

I used to think people read books because of that overwhelming smell of the pages that you can bury your nose in, rather than the actual subject!

I used to believe…

When I was 15, I accidentally referred to my baby cousin's Christening as his funeral. Well, at least I found it funny myself.

I used to think headquarters meant somebody's head cut into 4.