Hey. This is kind of hard to articulate what I'm looking for, and probably for that reason I won't get much help. I'm looking for words, phrases, or ideas that are silly now, but used to be serious. I don't know how to explain it, but I can give a few examples.

Funny names for animals, i.e. honey fly instead of bee, or a striped lion instead of a tiger.
Bogus illnesses/sciences/theories, such as womb fury. Also, falling sickness instead of epilepsy.
Descriptions for plants, such as "the plant that produces wool" instead of just "cotton plant".
And, as is mentioned in GoT, something like "milk of the poppy" for opium... things like this.

If you know of any, or better yet, a place where I could look for &/or find some (like a specific work by Aristotle or some such person from antiquity), point me in a direction. Also, if you know a better way to describe what I'm looking for, that would be amazing too.

I don't mind if it was actually used in the past or if it just sounds like it would have been. I'll even take tips on how to better invent my own, if you have any.

I can't seem to get much help on this from other forums, or even, *shudders*, Yahoo! Answers.

I much prefer the term "automaton" to "robot".

Am I doing this right, or...?

"Religion". That one always cracks me up.

Not really... if the robot was anthropomorphic, maybe "metal person" would be more along the lines of what I was looking for, but even that is pushing it.

I still use words like queer, craven, and various archaic terms, but that's because these are 'normal' to me due to my love of Old West and Medieval literature.

Edit @ SRK: Shut up. Just shut up now.

Yeah, I mean... those are more common. I'm looking for things that have that extra bit of innocence and undeveloped knowledge so prevalent in antiquity.

the bees knees? I honestly don't know what you're looking for.

I wouldn't call it 'innocent' or 'undeveloped' it's more a change of how we use language. IE dialect evolving over time.

Automobile has a certain innocence attached it for me, as it was used when the car was a more romantacised sort of item back before it became mundane due to everyone having one. I just think of the excitement kids must have felt when they saw an automobile going past back when they were a new luxury item/invention. Although I think you want words from earlier.

*very mild facepalm*

It's really hard to describe what I'm looking for. It seems to consist of an instance where the word that we use today didn't exist back then, and so they had to describe something by a way that made sense, and still does, but is just funny sounding today.

Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh... Cleaning bowl... for bathtub... get it?


Everything I do in life is stupid.

Like scientific terms? Like, Isaac Newton called calculus fluxions, which is no longer used now.

Top of the morning to you ya!

Various racial slurs.

A witch on fire is worth three tied to a large stone and dropped in the lake...

If your wife questions your judgment make her sleep outside in the rain...

These used to be common sayings...I am not making this up. http://www.manolith.com/2010/04/08/top-10-old-sayings-that-we-need-to-bring-back/

[censored] a hoop...meant being ecstatic or something.