Is there a term for an equivocal compound e.g. "guinea pig"

Question

"Sweetbread," "guinea pig," "shortbread" (a typical Scottish biscuit), "egg cream" (a carbonated drink), and "firefly" are all not what their two nouns claim.

A sweetbread is neither sweet nor bread, a guinea pig is not a pig from Guinea, and so forth.

So, is there a technical term for this kind of word?

"Shortbread" is what it claims to be -- a bread rich in shortening. (Of course, some cakes are mistakenly called "shortcake", but that's an error in the use of the term.) — Hot Licks, Jul 22 '18 at 20:56
Except it doesn't say "shortening bread." Let's say you're a foreigner learning English: if you saw "shortbread," your mind would conjure up a very short loaf of bread. Anyway, can you possibly help with answering the actual question? Thanx! — Wordster, Jul 22 '18 at 20:59
Try to think of another two or three words, and supply links to their definitions. You're new here, so older users like to be sure that you know the meanings of these terms. Trust me on this. Spend a little bit of effort and someone will notice. E.g. The pancreas or thymus gland of an animal, especially a lamb or calf, as food. Etymology: Apparently from sweet +‎ bread, though the reason is not immediately evident. — Mari-Lou A, Jul 22 '18 at 21:38
A pineapple is neither an apple nor a pine (cone). I "know" this term exists, I can't remember it. — Mari-Lou A, Jul 22 '18 at 21:45
Related:Compound noun with completely different meaning and Open non-compositional compound nouns — Mari-Lou A, Jul 22 '18 at 21:54
"Egg cream," which contains no egg and no cream. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egg_cream) "Firefly," which is neither a fly, nor does it have anything to do with fire (it actually produces "cold light). (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firefly) "Peanut," which is neither a pea nor a nut. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peanut) — Wordster, Jul 22 '18 at 22:00
Thanx, Mari-Lou, for those links. I guess there's no simple term for that kind of word. {shrugs} — Wordster, Jul 22 '18 at 22:05
Pineapples look exactly like a cross between a pine cone and an apple. (Only the size is different -and FWIW they were probably smaller then or only seen as drawings.) Indeed a dictionary instantly gives that in the 1600s they were so named since they look like a pine cone. — Fattie, Jul 23 '18 at 00:52
"Except it doesn't say 'shortening bread.'" That is a somewhat bizarre comment, Wordster! "short" is completely normally and commonly used in cooking, to mean - well - "short". It's a totally common cooking term - like say "sweet" or "wet". — Fattie, Jul 23 '18 at 00:55
"guinea pig" couldn't be clearer, it's a little pig-like animal from Guinea. (The slight confusion over world regions is irrelevant, consider "Indians".) — Fattie, Jul 23 '18 at 00:56
You're supposed to edit the question, not add details in a comment. And the title is a bit vague. — Mari-Lou A, Jul 23 '18 at 01:39
So like how Grape-Nuts® contain neither grapes nor nuts, or how the Holy Roman Empire was neither holy nor Roman? — tchrist, Jul 23 '18 at 03:02
"Fire fox". "Bombay duck", ... See also, http://test.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread504644/pg1 — Kris, Jul 23 '18 at 07:45
http://listverse.com/2008/05/28/25-things-that-are-not-what-they-seem/ and http://listverse.com/2009/09/09/20-more-things-that-are-not-what-they-seem/ — Kris, Jul 23 '18 at 07:53
Mari-Lou, "equivocal compounds" is a splendid description! Tchrist, I wish I had thought of GN for one of my original examples. Nobody can quibble about THAT word, LOL! — Wordster, Jul 23 '18 at 17:54

Zebrafish · Accepted Answer · 2018-07-23T07:26:37.057

3

Sounds to me like a "misnomer".

A misnomer is a name or term that suggests an idea that is known to be wrong.

Wikipedia article

Among the examples it gives is the one you have in your question:

The guinea pig originated in the Andes not Guinea, and additionally is a rodent and unrelated to pigs.

Wikipedia article

Sometimes both words are inapt, sometimes one of the words are. Some examples where one of the words do not fit are:

French horns originated in Germany, not France.

Although dry cleaning does not involve water, it does involve the use of liquid solvents.

Tin foil is almost always aluminium, whereas "tin cans" made for the storage of food products are made from steel.

Catgut is not the intestines of a cat, but usually another animal, and in some cases not gut at all, but synthetic.

Other words containing two recognisable sub-words such as your "shortbread" example that are both wrong discretely include:

peanut (fairly obvious, not a pea, not a nut, but a legume)
strawberry (not straw, and technically not a berry), as well as many other berries

So I'm not sure if you're looking for an even more specific word, but these are definitely considered misnomers.

All the information is sourced from Wikipedia. Wikipedia article

Oxford Living Dictionaries defines a misnomer as:

1 A wrong or inaccurate name or designation.
1.1 A wrong or inaccurate use of a name or term.

Oxford Living Dictionaries

However as Wikipedia notes, the use of the word isn't incorrect. In other words it's not wrong to call sweetbread "sweetbread" even though it's not sweet nor bread.

Another example is Rocky Mountain oysters, or prairie oysters, which is a dish of cattle testicles. They're not oysters, and they need not be obtained from the Rocky Mountains or a prairie.

edited Jul 23 '18 at 07:26

answered Jul 22 '18 at 22:29

Zebrafish

12,612

Zebrafish, I guess there's the simple term I was looking for. Thanx much! (PS: cattle testicles? Seriously?) – Wordster Jul 22 '18 at 22:35
@Wordster, yeah, and guess what lamb fries are, the same as the oysters but of sheep. There's a funny scene in a Chevy Chase movie where he breaks the record for the number of lamb fries eaten, then when he finds out what they really are throws up. The names of foods are really weird sometimes, like head cheese, which is a meat. – Zebrafish Jul 22 '18 at 22:48
2

I tip my Panama hat to you. – Phil Sweet Jul 22 '18 at 23:13
@Zebrafish: in Aust/NZ English, "lamb's fry" means sheep's liver - a common (if old-fashioned) dish typically served with bacon. I never knew it had a different meaning in the USA. – Chappo Hasn't Forgotten Jul 23 '18 at 00:47
lamb's fry is liver. – Fattie Jul 23 '18 at 00:49
MY GOD! I just learned that indeed in the UK, it means any offal but typically the testicles. I had only ever heard it mean liver. – Fattie Jul 23 '18 at 00:50
The bullet points that you have in block quotes—where are they from? If it's your own words you shouldn't be using quote format. – Laurel Jul 23 '18 at 01:12
@Laurel They're all from Wikipedia, but I added my own comments to a couple of them. I've taken those out of block quotes. I didn't want to appear to be paraphrasing when the description is almost word for word from another site. – Zebrafish Jul 23 '18 at 07:29
While this term might potentially work in some technical setting, if you go around telling people that firefly, egg cream, and peanut are misnomers you'll just irritate them. In ordinary conversation, "that's a misnomer" means "you've misunderstood the concept", not "that term's literal meaning when broken down is misleading." – 1006a Jul 23 '18 at 08:04
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@1006a I don't know that irritation is the response you'd get from people. Misnomer sounds a lot like misnamed, which is actually its origin from Latin. That's exactly the first idea I get when I hear "misnomer", so that hearing egg cream (I don't even know what that is) would make me think it's misnamed and so would be a misnomer, ie., misnamed. This is in a casual, non-technical sense, aside from what grammarians or linguists have to say about what "misnomer" really means. – Zebrafish Jul 23 '18 at 08:15

Is there a term for an equivocal compound e.g. "guinea pig"

1 Answers1