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List of common misconceptions about arts and culture

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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Each entry on this list of common misconceptions is worded as a correction; the misconceptions themselves are implied rather than stated. These entries are concise summaries; the main subject articles can be consulted for more detail.

Main article: List of common misconceptions

Business

  • Federal legal tender laws in the United States do not require that private businesses, persons, or organizations accept cash for payment, though it must be treated as valid payment for debts when tendered to a creditor.[1]
  • Adidas is not an acronym for "All day I dream about sports", "All day I dream about soccer", or "All day I dream about sex". The company was named after its founder Adolf "Adi" Dassler in 1949. The earliest publication found of the latter backronym was in 1978, as a joke.[2][3]
  • The letters "AR" in AR-15 stand for "ArmaLite Rifle", reflecting the company ArmaLite that originally manufactured the weapon. They do not stand for "assault rifle".[4][5]
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  • The Coca-Cola bottle's contour bottle was not designed by the industrial designer Raymond Loewy.[6][7]
  • The common image of Santa Claus (Father Christmas) as a large jolly man in red garments was not created by the Coca-Cola Company as an advertising tool. Santa Claus had already taken this form in American popular culture by the late 19th century, long before Coca-Cola used his image in the 1930s.[8]
  • The Chevrolet Nova sold well in Latin American markets; General Motors did not rename the car. While no va does mean "doesn't go" in Spanish, nova was easily understood to mean "new".[9]
  • Netflix was not founded after its co-founder Reed Hastings was charged a $40 late fee by Blockbuster. Hastings made the story up to summarize Netflix's value proposition; Netflix's founders were actually inspired by Amazon.[10]
  • PepsiCo in no real sense ever owned the "6th most powerful navy" in the world after a deal with the Soviet Union. In 1989, Pepsi acquired several decommissioned warships as part of a barter deal.[11][12] The oil tankers were leased out or sold and the other ships sold for scrap.[13] A follow-on deal involved another 10 ships.[14]
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Fine arts

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Classical sculptures were originally painted in colors.
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Food and cooking

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Seared tuna
  • Searing does not seal in moisture in meat; it causes it to lose some moisture. Meat is seared to brown it and to affect its color, flavor, and texture.[19]
  • Braising meat does not add moisture; it causes it to lose some moisture. Moisture appears to be added when the gentle cooking breaks down connective tissue and collagen, which lubricates and tenderizes fibers.[20][21]
  • Mussels and clams that do not open when cooked can still be fully cooked and safe to eat.[22][23][24][25][better source needed]
  • Twinkies, an American snack cake generally considered to be "junk food", have a shelf life of around 25 days, despite the common claim (usually facetious) that they remain edible for decades.[26] The official shelf life is 45 days. Twinkies normally remain on a store shelf for 7 to 10 days.[27]
  • Packaged foods, when properly stored, can safely be eaten past their "expiration" dates in the US. While some US states regulate expiration dates for some products, generally "use-by" and "best-by" dates are manufacturer suggestions for best quality.[28]
  • Storing bread in the refrigerator makes it go stale faster than leaving it at room temperature.[29][30] It does, however, slow mold growth.[31]
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Crystallized honey
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Kappa-maki contains cucumber and no seafood

Food and drink history

  • Steak tartare was not invented by Mongol warriors who tenderized horse meat under their saddles.[53] It is likely named after the French tartar sauce, evolving from an early 20th century French dish where the sauce was served with steaks.[54]
  • Marco Polo did not introduce pasta to Italy from China.[55] The misconception originated as promotional material in the Macaroni Journal, a newsletter published by an association of American pasta makers.[56]
  • Spices were not used in the Middle Ages to mask the flavor of rotten meat before refrigeration. Spices were an expensive luxury item; those who could afford them could afford good meat, and there are no contemporaneous documents calling for spices to disguise the taste of bad meat.[57]
  • Catherine de' Medici's cooks did not introduce Italian foods and techniques to the French royal court, laying the foundations for the development of French haute cuisine.[58]
  • Whipped cream was not invented by François Vatel in 1661 and later named at the Château de Chantilly where it was notably served; similar recipes are attested at least a century earlier in France and England.[59][60]
  • Dom Pérignon did not invent champagne. Wine naturally starts to bubble after being pressed, and bubbles at the time were considered a flaw which Pérignon worked unsuccessfully to eliminate.[61][62]
  • Potato chips / crisps were not invented by a frustrated George Speck in response to a customer, sometimes given as Cornelius Vanderbilt, complaining that his French fries were too thick and not salty enough.[63][64] Recipes for potato chips were published as early as 1817.[65] The misconception was popularized by a 1973 advertising campaign by the St. Regis Paper Company.[66]
  • George Washington Carver was not the inventor of peanut butter.[67] The first peanut butter related patent was filed by John Harvey Kellogg in 1895, and peanut butter was used by the Incas centuries prior to that.[68][69] Carver did compile hundreds of uses for peanuts, in addition to uses for pecans, and sweet potatoes.[68][70] An opinion piece by William F. Buckley Jr. may have been the source of the misconception.[67]
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Fortune cookies are rarely found in China
  • Fortune cookies are not found in Chinese cuisine, despite their presence in Chinese restaurants in the United States and other Western countries. They originated in Japan and were introduced to the US by the Japanese.[71] In China, they are considered American, and are rare.[72]
  • Julius Caesar did not invent Caesar salad. Its creator was Caesar Cardini, an Italian-American restaurateur, in Tijuana, Mexico, in 1924.[73][74]
  • Hydrox is not a knock-off of Oreos. Hydrox, invented in 1908, predates Oreos by four years and was initially more popular than Oreos. The name "Hydrox" being said to sound like a laundry detergent contributed to its market decline.[75][76]
  • The difference between the taste of "banana-flavored" candy and a real banana is not due to the former being specifically designed to replicate the taste of Gros Michel bananas, the cultivar that dominated the American banana market before the rise of Cavendish bananas. All banana cultivars derive their flavor from a complex mix of many compounds, while a single compound, isoamyl acetate, gives banana candy its flavor. Isoamyl acetate naturally occurs in bananas as well as many other fruits and fermented beverages.[77] It is more concentrated in Gros Michel bananas than in Cavendish bananas, but its use in candy production was due to its simple production, not any specific resemblance to a banana's flavor.[78][79]

Microwave ovens

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  • Microwave ovens are not tuned to any specific resonant frequency for water molecules in the food.[80][81] They cook food via dielectric heating of polar molecules, notably water and fats.[82]
  • Microwave ovens do not cook food from the inside out. 2.45 GHz microwaves can only penetrate approximately 1–1.5 inches (2.5–3.8 centimeters) into most foods. The inside portions of thicker foods are mainly heated by heat conducted from the outer layers.[83][84][85]
  • The radiation produced by a microwave oven is non-ionizing, similar to visible light or radio waves. It therefore does not have the cancer risks associated with ionizing radiation such as X-rays and high-energy particles, nor does it render the food radioactive. All microwave radiation dissipates as heat. Long-term rodent studies to assess cancer risk have so far failed to identify any carcinogenicity from 2.45 GHz microwave radiation even with chronic exposure levels (i.e. large fraction of life span) far larger than humans are likely to encounter from any leaking ovens. The risk of injury from direct exposure to microwaves is not cumulative, but instead the result of a high-intensity exposure resulting in tissue burns, in much the same way that a high-intensity laser can burn.[86][87]
  • Microwaving food does not significantly reduce its nutritive value more than other ways of heating and may preserve it better than other cooking processes due to shorter cooking times.[88]
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Film and television

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Humphrey Bogart in Casablanca
  • A 1990s film titled Shazaam starring American comedian and actor Sinbad as a genie has never existed. False memories of this film are often cited as an example of the Mandela effect, and are commonly attributed to the 1996 film Kazaam, which featured basketball player Shaquille O'Neal as the titular genie, along with Sinbad's appearance wearing a genie costume while introducing the 1977 film Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger on TNT in 1994.[98][99][100]
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Language

See also: List of common misconceptions about language learning
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Chinese word for "crisis"
  • The word "gringo" did not originate during the Mexican–American War (1846–1848) as a corruption of "Green, go home!", in reference to the green uniforms of American troops.[106][107] The word originally simply meant "foreigner", and is probably a corruption of the Spanish word griego for "Greek" (along the lines of the idiom "It's Greek to me").[108][109]

English language

Main articles: List of common false etymologies and Common English usage misconceptions
  • Xmas did not originate as a secular plan to "take Christ out of Christmas".[118] X represents the Greek letter chi, the first letter of Χριστός (Christós), "Christ" in Greek,[119] as found in the chi-rho symbol (ΧΡ) since the 4th century. In English, "X" was first used as a scribal abbreviation for "Christ" in 1021.[120][121]
  • The word crap did not originate as a back-formation of British plumber Thomas Crapper's apt surname.[122] The word crap ultimately comes from Medieval Latin crappa.[122][123]
  • The word fuck did not originate in the Middle Ages as an acronym.[124] Proposed acronyms include "fornicating under consent of king" or "for unlawful carnal knowledge", used as a sign posted above adulterers in the stocks. Nor did it originate as a corruption of "pluck yew" (an idiom falsely attributed to the English for drawing a longbow).[124][125][126] It is most likely derived from Middle Dutch or other Germanic languages, where it either meant "to thrust" or "to copulate with" (fokken in Middle Dutch), "to copulate", or "to strike, push, copulate" or "penis".[125] Either way, these variations would have been derived from the Indo-European root word -peuk, meaning "to prick".[125]
  • The expression "rule of thumb" did not originate from an English law allowing a man to beat his wife with a stick no thicker than his thumb, and there is no evidence that such a law ever existed.[127] The expression originates from the late seventeenth century from various trades where quantities were measured by comparison to the width or length of a thumb.[127][128]
  • The term "blue laws", denoting laws banning certain activities on specific days, did not originate from such laws being originally written on blue paper.[129][130]
  • The word the was never pronounced or spelled "ye" in Old or Middle English.[131] The confusion, seen in the common stock phrase "ye olde", derives from the use of the character thorn (þ), which in Middle English represented the sound now represented in Modern English by "th".[132] This evolved as early printing presses replaced the word the with "yͤ", a "y" character with a superscript "e".[133]
  • The anti-Italian slur wop did not originate from an acronym for "without papers"[134] or "without passport";[135][118] it is actually derived from the term guappo (roughly meaning thug), from the Spanish guapo.[136]
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Law, crime, and military

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Violent crime rates in the United States declined between 1991 and 2022.
  • Crime rates are declining for most types of crime, beginning in the mid to late 1980s and early 1990s.[137] In Europe, crime statistics show this is part of a broader pattern of crime decline since the late Middle Ages, with a reversal from the 1960s to the 1980s and 1990s, before the decline continued.[138] In the United States, between 1993 and 2022, the rate of violent crime per 100,000 people fell by almost 50%, and the rate of property crime fell by more than half.[139] The number of gun homicides also decreased.[140]
  • Studies consistently find that corporal punishment may have the opposite of its intended effect in the long run, decreasing long-term obedience,[141] while increasing the chances of aggressive behavior, depression, anxiety, suicide, and physical abuse.[142][143][144] See also Alternatives to spanking.
  • Chewing gum is not punishable by caning in Singapore. Although importing and selling chewing gum has been illegal in Singapore since 1992, and corporal punishment is still an applicable penalty for certain offenses in the country, the two facts are unrelated; chewing gum-related offenses have always been only subject to fines and incarceration, and the possession or consumption of chewing gum itself is not illegal.[145]
  • Employees of the international police organization Interpol cannot conduct investigations, arrest criminals or use fake passports.[clarification needed] Interpol's role is facilitating international communication between law enforcement agencies of sovereign states.[146][147]
  • No cases have been proven of strangers killing or permanently injuring children by intentionally hiding poisons or sharp objects such as razor blades in candy or apples during Halloween trick-or-treating and the belief has been "thoroughly debunked". However, in at least one case, adult family members have spread this story to cover up filicide.[148]
  • There has never been a documented case of pet black cats being tortured or ritually sacrificed around Halloween. Where violent deaths of black cats have been documented around Halloween, the death has usually been ascribed to natural predators, such as coyotes, eagles, or raptors.[149]
  • It is not necessary to wait 24 hours before filing a missing person report. When there is evidence of violence or of an unusual absence, it is important to start an investigation promptly.[150][151] Criminology experts say the first 72 hours in a missing person investigation are the most critical.[152]
  • Perry Mason moments, in which a person on trial for a crime is suddenly exonerated by newly introduced revelations, are exceptionally rare in real-life court proceedings, despite their ubiquity in legal drama. The vast majority of evidence is unveiled in pretrial discovery; should new revelations occur, a trial is usually stayed until both the prosecution and defense can review it.[153]
  • Diplomatic missions do not necessarily enjoy full extraterritorial status and are generally not sovereign territory of the represented state. The sending state can give embassies sovereign status but this only happens with a minority of countries. Although they receive special privileges (such as immunity from most local laws) by the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations the premises of an embassy remain under the jurisdiction of the host state.[154]

United States

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Immigrants had lower arrest rates than citizens in Texas, 2012–2018
  • Undocumented immigrants in the US have substantially lower crime rates than US-born citizens.[155][156] Compared to undocumented immigrants, US-born citizens are more than twice as likely to be arrested for violent crimes, 2.5 times more likely to be arrested for drug crimes, and over 4 times more likely to be arrested for property crimes.[156] Immigrants are 60% less likely to be incarcerated than US-born citizens.[157]
  • The First Amendment to the United States Constitution generally prevents only government restrictions on the freedoms of religion, speech, press, assembly, or petition,[158] not restrictions imposed by other entities unless they are acting on behalf of the government.[159][160] Other laws may limit the ability of private businesses and individuals to restrict the speech of others.[161]
  • In the United States, a defendant may not have their case dismissed simply because they were not read their Miranda rights at the time of their arrest.[162] If a person is not given a Miranda warning before the interrogation is conducted, statements made by them during the interrogation may not be admissible in a trial, but the prosecution may still present other forms of evidence, or statements made during interrogations where the defendant was read their Miranda rights.[163]
  • Police officers in the United States are not required to identify themselves as police in undercover work, and may lie when engaged in such work.[164] Claiming entrapment as a defense depends on whether the defendant was improperly induced by undue pressure from government agents (or others acting under police direction) to commit crimes they would not have otherwise committed.[165]
  • It is not illegal in the US to shout "fire" in a crowded theater. Although this is often given as an example of speech that is not protected by the First Amendment, it is not now nor has it ever been binding law. The phrase originates from Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.'s opinion in the United States Supreme Court case Schenck v. United States in 1919, which held that the defendant's speech in opposition to the draft during World War I was not protected free speech. However, that case was not about shouting "fire" and the decision was later overturned by Brandenburg v. Ohio in 1969.[166][167]
  • The US Armed Forces have generally forbidden military enlistment as a form of deferred adjudication (that is, an option for convicts to avoid jail time) since the 1980s.[168] US Navy protocols discourage the practice, while the other four branches have specific regulations against it.[169]
  • Last meal requests do not have to be fulfilled.[170] States have various restrictions on what can be requested, up to not permitting them at all.[171]
  • Although popularly known as the "red telephone", the Moscow–Washington hotline was never a telephone line, nor were red phones used. The first implementation of the hotline used teletype equipment, which was replaced by facsimile (fax) machines in 1988. Since 2008, the hotline has been a secure computer link over which the two countries exchange email.[172] Moreover, the hotline links the Kremlin to the Pentagon, not the White House.[173][174]
  • Likewise, the nuclear football, the briefcase used by presidents to launch nuclear attacks, does not contain a large red button to launch an attack. Rather, its primary use is to confirm the president's identity, and to facilitate communication with the Pentagon.[175][176][177]
  • Twinkies were not claimed to be the cause of San Francisco mayor George Moscone's and supervisor Harvey Milk's murders. In the trial of Dan White, the defense successfully argued White's diminished capacity as a result of depression. While eating Twinkies was cited as evidence of this depression, it was never claimed to be the cause of the murders.[178][179]
  • Neither the Mafia nor other criminal organizations regularly use or have used cement shoes to drown their victims.[180] There are only two documented cases of this method being used in murders: one in 1964 and one in 2016 (although, in the former, the victim had concrete blocks tied to his legs rather than being enclosed in cement).[181] The French Army did use cement shoes on Algerians killed in death flights during the Algerian War.[182]
  • Embalming is not legally required in the United States.[183][184] The Federal Trade Commission passed a rule in 1984 forbidding making this claim, to prevent the funeral industry from promoting the misconception for financial gain.[185]
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Literature

Main article: Wikiquote:Misquotations
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Music

See also: Mondegreen § In songs

Classical music

Minute Waltz
Pronunciation of minute in "Minute Waltz"
Problems playing this file? See media help.
  • The "Minute Waltz" takes, on average, two minutes to play as originally written.[204] Its name comes from the adjective minute, meaning "small", and not the noun spelled the same.[205]
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Religion

Buddhism

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Statue of the Buddha (Siddhartha Gautama)
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Statue of Budai, often incorrectly referred to as the "Buddha"
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Statue of emaciated Siddhartha Gautama ascetic, often incorrectly referred to as the "Buddha"
  • The chubby, bald monk with lengthened ears who is often depicted laughing, known as the "fat Buddha" or "laughing Buddha" in the West, is a depiction of the Chinese Buddhist folk hero Budai,[222] not Siddhartha Gautama, the historical figure usually referenced by the phrase 'the Buddha.' 'Buddha' is a role or title in Buddhism which can properly be applied to both Budai and Siddhartha, but they are separate figures. Siddhartha is most often depicted in normal weight and concentrated in meditation.

Christianity

  • Jesus was most likely not born on December 25, when his birth is traditionally celebrated as Christmas. It is more likely that his birth was in either the season of spring or perhaps summer. Although the Common Era ostensibly counts the years since the birth of Jesus,[223] it is unlikely that he was born in either AD 1 or 1 BC, as such a numbering system would imply. Modern historians estimate a date closer to between 6 BC and 4 BC.[224]
  • The Bible does not say that exactly three magi came to visit the baby Jesus, nor that they were kings, or rode on camels, or that their names were Caspar, Melchior, and Balthazar, nor what color their skin was.[225][226][227][citation needed] Three magi are inferred because three gifts are described, but the Bible says only that there was more than one magus.[228][229][230]
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No evidence supports Mary Magdalene having been a prostitute.[231][232]

Islam

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Afghan women wearing burqas
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Turkish women wearing niqābs
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Turkish women wearing hijabs
  • The burqa (also transliterated as burka or burkha) is often confused with other types of head-wear worn by Muslim women, particularly the niqāb and the hijab. A burqa covers the body, head, and face, with a mesh grille to see through. A niqab covers the hair and face, excluding the eyes. A hijab covers the hair and chest but not the face.[256]
  • Not all Muslim women wear face or head coverings.[257]
  • A fatwa is a generally non-binding legal opinion issued by an Islamic scholar under Islamic law; it is therefore commonplace for fatawa from different authors to disagree. The misconception that it is a death sentence stems from a decree issued by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini of Iran in 1989 where he said that the author Salman Rushdie had earned a death sentence for blasphemy. It is debated whether this was a fatwa.[258][259][260]
  • The word jihad does not always mean 'holy war'; its literal meaning in Arabic is 'struggle'. While there is such a thing as jihad by the sword, jihad can be any spiritual or moral effort or struggle,[261][262][263] such as seeking knowledge, putting others before oneself, and inviting others to Islam.[264]
  • The Quran does not promise martyrs 72 virgins in heaven. It does mention that companions, houri, are given to all people, martyr or not, in heaven, but no number is specified.[265] The source for the 72 virgins is a hadith in Sunan al-Tirmidhi by Imam Tirmidhi.[266][267] Hadiths are sayings and acts of Muhammad as reported by others, not part of the Quran itself.[268][266] In reports of this in Western media some of the Arabic words translated as "virgins" could be more accurately translated as 'angel' or 'heavenly being'.[269]

Judaism

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The fruit in the Garden of Eden is not named in the Book of Genesis.

Sports

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A BJJ black belt with a red bar indicating first degree

Video games

Sources

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