What commonly known thing did you learn at an embarrassingly older age?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For a word game competition in college i pronounced Sobriquet as so- bri - que - T.

Everyone laughed at me . Worse when it was their turn to speak, they delibertely purposely mispronounced all the words they were using i.e. K - nife, buffe-T, etc. The audience, the comp and all the participants were in stiches!

I still die a thousand deaths when i think of this.

On a related note (there is a theme here), I pronounced hyperbole as hyper-bowl. My BF at the time asked if it was a larger version of the superbowl. Cringe!

You are not the one who should be embarrassed by this.

Confession, I have never had reason to speak the word but if I did I would probably say the T, that's what it sounds like in my head--even though I have 2 years of college French and even though DH and I enjoy pronouncing French place names in the US (like Des Moines) with (more or less) correct French pronunciation.

An acquaintance of my DS is in his early 30s and we are constantly amazed by him. He thought bathroom fans are required by code specifically to get rid of smells (he called it the s***fan, maybe he thinks it's what the s*** hits??). He asked me one day if there are still nuns.

I thought Hermès was pronounced “Her-mees “ until a posh friend explained it was “Air-May”

That's wrong. The "s" is pronounced.

Yeah nah. Your posh friend is wrong - it's more like Er-mez (rhymes with Pez sort of). The French accent in Hermès is an "accent grave" ( è ), not an "accent aigu" ( é ). André has an accent aigu so that the ending sounds like Dray (or more Frenchly - Drrray) which rhymes with the May sound.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That a "yamaka" and a yarmulke are the same thing. I just thought I had never seen "yamaka" written out.

Dh thought “epitome” was pronounced ep-ih-tohm, and didn’t realize it was the same word that we all pronounce as ee-pit-oh-me.

I had an English teacher who would praise us for mispronouncing words like that. She said it was a sign that we were reading lots of challenging books

I did this recently with hyperbole. I've been pronouncing it like super-bowl but using it correctly. No one ever says "hyperbole" in real life!

[Anonymous]

I didn’t realize until learning on DCUM in my late 30s that you are not supposed to flush tampons. Oops!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Grew up in a different country, but always thought it was "Pope Yes" chicken, instead of "Pop Eyes" chicken. Imagine my embarrassment when I landed here and asked for "Pope Yes" chicken.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:That Humpty Dumpty is an egg!

Ha! Mine is that the poem Humpty Dumpty never explicitly states that he’s an egg! We only “know” that from the illustrations.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I didn’t realize until learning on DCUM in my late 30s that you are not supposed to flush tampons. Oops!

At least you learned on DCUM, not when you were writing a $700 check to the plumber.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The meaning of the lyrics of most of my favorite songs from the 70s...and 80's for that matter!

Lol
Yes
I thought song lyrics “afternoon delight” was akin to Narnia’s Turkish delight (dessert)

I read the Narnia books 40 years ago and I still don’t know what Turkish Delight is.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Grew up in a different country, but always thought it was "Pope Yes" chicken, instead of "Pop Eyes" chicken. Imagine my embarrassment when I landed here and asked for "Pope Yes" chicken.

It is not “Pop Eyes” chicken. It is Popeyes fried chicken named after cartoon character. BTW while talking about Popeye carton another character “Eugene the Jeep” could go anywhere. For instance Popeye locked in Jail he could call Eugene the Jeep to get him out.

Soldiers nicknamed the first four wheel drive vehicles (small green ones you see in old WWII movies) Jeeps as they could go anywhere.


https://popeye.fandom.com/wiki/Eugene_the_Jeep

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I used to love the movie Dirty Dancing when I was a kid. I had NO IDEA that Penny’s character was getting some back room abortion. The whole time they kept saying, “Penny is in trouble.” I had no idea what that meant.

It was only when I was watching the movie in grad school when it finally clicked and I was like, “holy hell!”

Same!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The meaning of the lyrics of most of my favorite songs from the 70s...and 80's for that matter!

Lol
Yes
I thought song lyrics “afternoon delight” was akin to Narnia’s Turkish delight (dessert)

I read the Narnia books 40 years ago and I still don’t know what Turkish Delight is.

Turkish Revenge is the worst

[Anonymous]

Boyfriend in college asked why I needed a tampons and sanitary pads. He didn't know why I couldn't hold it like I held my pee. What? Anyway, I just told him I was lazy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I didn’t realize until learning on DCUM in my late 30s that you are not supposed to flush tampons. Oops!

You're not?

[Anonymous]

Along the same lines as Penny’s abortion, I didn’t realize that Mr. Miyagi’s wife died in an internment camp.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Boyfriend in college asked why I needed a tampons and sanitary pads. He didn't know why I couldn't hold it like I held my pee. What? Anyway, I just told him I was lazy.

I hope this one was pretty because he sounds extra dumb

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The meaning of the lyrics of most of my favorite songs from the 70s...and 80's for that matter!

Lol
Yes
I thought song lyrics “afternoon delight” was akin to Narnia’s Turkish delight (dessert)

I read the Narnia books 40 years ago and I still don’t know what Turkish Delight is.

It is similar to the consistency of jello and the flavor of rose water. Sometimes it’s coated in chocolate. Essentially it’s a candy.