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Not What it Seems

Dave Carr has just posted an ornithological treatise of a blog stating that the Bearded Tit is not a Tit at all. I commented about Welsh Rabbit (I know, I know - it should be Rarebit!).
What other phrases are patently not what they seem at all?
Bombay Duck?
Fri, 14 Oct 2011 11:35 am
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French letter? Interestingly enough, the same thing is called an english hood in french (capote anglaise)...
Fri, 14 Oct 2011 12:24 pm
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steve mellor

Dutch cap?
I tried and tried, but even though I have been known as 'pin-head' I couldn't manage it
Fri, 14 Oct 2011 02:10 pm
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Likewise, I understand that French Leave is called English Leave in France.
Fri, 14 Oct 2011 02:11 pm
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Britain's private schools are known as public schools.

Of course there are scholarships and many of them are charities......
Fri, 14 Oct 2011 04:03 pm
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What about "Allo, Vera"
Sat, 15 Oct 2011 07:09 pm
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This isn't strictly to the point but the English language does have other peculiarities.

Putting 'in' on the front of a word normally reverses its meaning to the negative. Appropriate > inappropriate.
However flammable and inflammable mean the same.

Awesome presumably means creating some awe. Awful, should mean full of awe shouldn't it, but means the opposite.
Thu, 20 Oct 2011 11:35 pm
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The hood/soft-top of a car such as the 2CV is known as la capote, and they are often sourced in England, hence my car is covered by une capote anglaise. a spanner is une clé anglaise - dunno why - and when I crack jokes in French and they don't understand they shrug and say, ah, l'humour anglais (i.e. famously not funny), from which they wish to be saved, or preserved; and another name for a condom in France is préservative, which you won't find in food, one hopes.
Mon, 24 Oct 2011 12:18 pm
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piccadilly circus...never so much as a dancing horse to be seen (elephant and castle was another real disappointment [not to say that I had a non-booking in the first place...])
Mon, 24 Oct 2011 12:47 pm
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When I was about fourteen and rather whimsical I went all the way to Angel on the tube because the name sounded so beautiful . . . .
Mon, 24 Oct 2011 01:51 pm
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I once got conned into going into the flix to watch a film called "Black Leather Pants" which turned out to be about ski-ing.
Mon, 24 Oct 2011 10:40 pm
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The purple finch...it isn't (seems this rounded-off the thread back to John's tits ;0)
Wed, 26 Oct 2011 12:15 am
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