Words and terms that sound way cooler than they actually are?

[danzibr]

Ha, penalty kick is probably my favorite so far.

A gossypibom is a surgical sponge left inside the body.

A tarn is a mountain lake.

[Legato Endless]

In the West Minister Parliamentary system, the Shadow Cabinet. Made up of Shadow Ministers.

What they actually do to merit the term is underwhelming even when you're expecting a mundane answer.

[Aedilred]

In the West Minister

Just to correct/clarify this, it's "Westminster", the name of the city* where Parliament is based. Literally named for the "West Minster", i.e. the abbey next to which the Parliament buildings are built, the "East Minster" being another monastery in London long since dissolved. While the confusion is understandable, "Minster" and "Minister" do not appear to be etymologically related, and the similarity is a happy coincidence.

*This city has been entirely swallowed by the London conurbation, but it still legally holds city status as a London borough.

[gooddragon1]

Dramatis Personae: Persons of the Drama. It's the cast list of a show.

[oudeis]

Pandiculation. It could be a blasphemous oath- "I swear by all the powers of Pandiculation I will have my revenge!"- or something you might hear on a NASA launch- "Flight, this is Guidance: We are seeing excessive pandiculation and at this time we are recommending full shutdown of engine 3." . It could even be a means of locomotion for limbless reptiles. But instead it merely means

Spoiler:

Show

A stretching and stiffening of the trunk and extremities, as when fatigued and drowsy or on waking, often accompanied by yawning.

How anticlimactic.

[Peelee]

Powerset.

It's a set of all subsets in a set. Including the set itself and the empty set.

[Rockphed]

It's also a way to stay anonymous on the internet and maybe engage in illicit activity. Pretty cool in an agent kind of way.

Which might or might not have been suborned by the FBI/CIA/NSA. At any rate, said agencies have been making consistent busts of creepy people trying to hide their creepy activity behind TOR for the last 3 or 4 years.

[Peelee]

Which might or might not have been suborned by the FBI/CIA/NSA. At any rate, said agencies have been making consistent busts of creepy people trying to hide their creepy activity behind TOR for the last 3 or 4 years.

OK, I like Star Wars as much as anybody, but this is making me seriously worried about continuing to play that game.

[Ruslan]

Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy

It really means "being hit on the head a lot".

[oudeis]

Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy

It really means "being hit on the head a lot".

Sorry, Ruslan, but this one doesn't belong in this thread. There's nothing cool about the term based on the words themselves and the definition doesn't really lend itself to any kind of humor at all.

[Fri]

My favourite so far (which I forgot until mentioned in this thread) is Shadow Government and Shadow Minister, really.

[Bohandas]

Borax sounds like a villain from an oldschool sciemce fiction series like Flash Gordon or Buck Rogers or something but it's actually a detergent

[Telonius]

Narthex. Sounds like it ought to be the name of an incredibly powerful dark sorcerer. Turns out it's just an entryway to a church.

[gooddragon1]

Narthex. Sounds like it ought to be the name of an incredibly powerful dark sorcerer. Turns out it's just an entryway to a church.

Dibs on this as a character name for my clergy vigilant. If I ever play one.

[JBPuffin]

Chronobiology. Totally sounds like the study of time travel's effects on the body. Turns out it's the study of biological cycles and rhythms - heart beat and such. The actual definition's not that bad, but..."sigh."

[Rockphed]

Chronobiology. Totally sounds like the study of time travel's effects on the body. Turns out it's the study of biological cycles and rhythms - heart beat and such. The actual definition's not that bad, but..."sigh."

I think you mean the study of organisms that travel through time.

[Cluedrew]

Here is one my friend made jokes about (paraphrased):

"We are at a meeting and one of the generals starts talking about problems that came up with Ravenscar."

...

Its a software development tool that caught some errors in a program.

[AdmiralCheez]

The Compliance Matrix: Sounds like a tool of an evil, tyrannical dystopia, but it's really just a checklist for quality assurance reviews.

[DrunkMongoose]

The first time I ever heard someone mention an African Wildebeest it invoked images of a fierce wild beast like predator creature. That fantastic image was quickly shattered once I learned they were basic African antelopes, but to this day I still think they should have named Wildebeest something else and given the Wildebeest title to some other creature like a Loin or Tiger. It seems much more be fitting.

[Lentrax]

Masticate. To the adolescent mind, it sounds similar to another function performed by the adolescent. But it just means to chew.

[Knaight]

Masticate. To the adolescent mind, it sounds similar to another function performed by the adolescent. But it just means to chew.

That's more a case of different than cooler. Either way it's some tedious and mundane body function. Now, Perambulate sounds like it's something interesting, but ends up just meaning walking, yet another tedious and mundane body function.

[Peelee]

That's more a case of different than cooler. Either way it's some tedious and mundane body function. Now, Perambulate sounds like it's something interesting, but ends up just meaning walking, yet another tedious and mundane body function.

They needed a fancier form of Ambulate.

[Knaight]

They needed a fancier form of Ambulate.

Yeah, but it could at least mean ambulating in a higher oxygen environment.

[StarLightPips]

Superannuation, sounded like some kind of superhero thing when I was a kid. Boi was I disappointed.

[Shamash]

"Kowloon Walled City" sounds like an awesome fantasy city... But it was a huge slum in Hong Kong. :/

[Aedilred]

Strictly speaking, "perambulate" means specifically to walk through or around something, hence the "per", rather than just "walking" (which is ambulation). In practice, the distinction is trivial, because people are almost always walking through or around something. But it wouldn't be strictly accurate, I think, to perambulate to something.

[SirKazum]

Strictly speaking, "perambulate" means specifically to walk through or around something, hence the "per", rather than just "walking" (which is ambulation). In practice, the distinction is trivial, because people are almost always walking through or around something. But it wouldn't be strictly accurate, I think, to perambulate to something.

At least in Portuguese, which uses the cognate to that verb (perambular) quite a bit, the meaning is more like "to wander" (especially in terms of walking around aimlessly), than just "to walk".

[Sithrak]

Food pyramid. It looks like a decent meal until you realize you aren't supposed to eat all of it at once.

[danzibr]

Defense rate means to throw someone or something out of a window.

Actually that's pretty cool.

[Amaril]

Defense rate means to throw someone or something out of a window.

Actually that's pretty cool.

It is, but I think you mean defenestrate