‘What is a universally known fact you only found out well into adulthood?’ – 23 basic truths that some people took way too long to find out

Children tend to be credulous fools who believe all sorts of nonsense, but they’re let off for it, as they’re only young and haven’t had time yet to figure out what is true and what isn’t.

However, sometimes we latch onto things as kids that we have a very hard time letting go of even when we grow up. Reddit user BarryFairbrother has been ruminated on this, and posted the following on the AskUK page:

‘What is a universally known fact, definition, phenomenon, etc. that everyone (including children) knows but you only found out well into adulthood?’

They then shared their own most unfortunate misconception(s).

‘I was in my 20s at least before I stopped thinking this:

‘I thought ‘vegan’ meant someone who is a native of Las Vegas – I had not heard of the more common vegetable-related meaning (I was obviously in my 20s a while ago now).

‘I thought ‘capers’ referred solely to the description of a film as a ‘comedy caper’ – I had never heard of the ingredient.

‘I thought ‘moreish’ was the same word as ‘Moorish’, referring to North African, not to a food/meal that you can’t stop eating. I was confused when people said Pringles were Moorish.’

Plenty of confusion going on there, and other people were happy to chip in with the things that had bamboozled them for far longer than was reasonable.

1.

‘I mean, perhaps children wouldn’t necessarily be aware, but it took me an embarrassingly long amount of time working in the corporate world to understand that Gardening Leave was not specific annual leave to, ya know, potter around and garden.

‘Why did I never clock that the individuals never came back into the office?! I do remember wondering if it would ever apply to me, as I only had a balcony at the time…’
–crgoodw

2.

‘Old boss once said ‘xxxxx has no onto pastures new’. Girl I was working with said to me ‘Another one? That’s three people that have gone to work at that company!’. ‘Pastures New’ does kinda sound like a company name but I thought it was a pretty common phrase.

‘The same colleague also looked on in horror when a fellow employee said he was visiting ‘the Black Country’.’
–CrazyMike419

3.

‘Right I never lived this one down but when I was in my 20’s I thought Scotland Yard was a bank.’
–Jack-Rabbit-002

4.

‘My parents have the same birthday, so as a small child I assumed that meant that when you get married one of you has to take the other’s birthday, same as surnames. I remember realising that my school friends’ parents had separate days.’
–bookishcod

5.

‘My missus thought the West Bank was a financial bank, rather than an area, until we watched a recent documentary.’
–BungadinRidesAgain

6.

‘I don’t know if this counts but for the longest time when people mentioned ‘Pink Floyd’ I thought they were referring to the female singer Pink. I assumed Floyd was her surname.’
–DontAskAboutMax

7.

‘Similarly, as a child I might have got Pink Floyd mixed up with Keith Floyd at some point.’
–ancientestKnollys

8.

‘As a very young child I remember confusing the names William Shakespeare and Britney Spears, and thought there was some association.’
–Equivalent_Rub8139

9.

‘I figured out two weeks ago that little beards are called goatees because goats have them. I’ve been using the word for most of my life and never thought about why they were called that, and then a couple weeks ago I was looking at a picture of a goat and a bearded man in a magazine, and suddenly went …oh. That makes sense. I’m in my forties.’
–FakeNordicAlien

10.

‘Frogs have bones. I don’t know why I thought they didn’t. They just look quite squishy.’
–boredsittingonthebus

11.

‘I thought ferrets could talk until I was 16. I didn’t think they spoke fluent english, I just thought they were good mimics like parrots etc.’
–hyper-casual