Such as “money can’t buy happiness” or “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger”. Generally a false adage or something like that. All I could think of was “fallacious bumper sticker” which just sounds stupid.
Truism
Bollocks.
For example someone says “you can’t teach an old dog new tricks” and you might say “that’s a questionable phrase.” or “I doubt the validity of that platitude”. But is there something specific to label it as, i.e. “That’s a [insert word]”
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“Canard” is the term, as another commented. 🤙🏼
Myth
If you’re not trying to be polite, “That’s bullshit” works perfectly.
Misconception?
Colbert’s “truthiness” comes to mind
“Myth” is a word I’d end that sentence with.
Bullshit
“Canard.”
noun 1. an unfounded rumor or story. “the old canard that LA is a cultural wasteland”
A Canard (French for duck) refers to something often believed to be true but isn’t.
The origin of this expression is because the French do not believe that Quebec is real.
It’s ducks all the way down.
L’honk
Honque*
🇲🇶🦆💬"Ouai"
Tabernac.
I like Fallacious Bumper Sticker! I’m absolutely using that going forward. It’s better than Pithy Folk Ignorance that I used to use.
I dunno, I kinda like Pithy Folk Ignorance.
A proverb.
Because your examples are actual proverbs, that might be considered true or not, depending on who says it when.
I dunno. Something being a proverb doesn’t make it inherently false, which is what we’re trying to define I guess
The examples OP provided are not inherently false because they are proverbs.
Common nonsense
I’ll call it that way.
Adage
How has nobody said this yet? Some guy actually said idiom.
Because an adage isn’t necessarily untrue, like the OP is asking.
Arguably, not necessarily. Adages are not truisms.
“Blood is thicker than water.”
Usually said to convince someone that you should be there to help family regardless of what that family did to you. Unfortunately the full saying is “The blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb”, meaning the ties you form with friends can be stronger than the family you you born into.
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One of the biggest cliche revisionist histories I know of is “Jack of all trades, master of none; often much better than master of one.” It’s an interesting one because it’s been retconned twice.
You’ll hear people respond to first line by saying “um actually the second line of the poem totally changes the meaning.” Yes, it did change the meaning when it was added in the 21st century, 400-500 years later.
Then you’ll hear people one step closer to accuracy who correct “Jack of all trades” by reminding the speaker that it’s not a compliment because it ends with “master of none.” Except the master of none bit wasn’t used until the 18th century, and the second revision with the couplet may actually closer in meaning to the original!
The original, simple phrase “jack of all trades” was first used in that form in the 16th century, possibly as a reference to Shakespeare, and definitely as a phrase that was intentionally ambiguous about whether it should be interpreted as a compliment or insult.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_of_all_trades?wprov=sfti1#Origins
This is probably not true. The concept of this phrase but referring to family is probably a modern confusion. There is no clear evidence it means it was really referencing ties to friends. Although I wish it did. Here’s some further reading from others also looking for a clearer reference.
Most of those old sayings have had the rejoinder omitted, which completely shifted their original meaning, in fact. For example, “Great minds think alike” originally closed with “but rarely do they differ”, etc.
Others have said “canard” which is almost certainly the best term; and “old wives’ tale” which is the same but for an anecdote or advice rather than pithy saying.
I think “aphorism” also fits the bill for a proverb if dubious legitimacy.
‘An old wives tale’
Not all wives tales are false. Most are, but not all.
Bullshitism.
“Decimate” =/= “devastate”, but common misuse becomes common use, so here we are. 🤦♂️
Yep decimate is so commonly misused that our lovely descriptivist dictionaries are now incorporating the incorrect use as correct. It’s too bad, too, because the word had a very specific meaning which is now lost. The language is less useful for changes like this.
Language is fun like that. Kinda like how ‘literally’ can, and often does, mean ‘figuratively’, which has the opposite meaning.
It annoys me that people keep saying “figuratively” is what they mean instead of “literally”. “Figuratively” may be the opposite, and technically correct, but the use of the word “literally” in this way is to strengthen a statement. A more appropriate correction would be “actually” or “seriously”, which holds the intended meaning. “Figuratively” is the last thing it should be replaced with.
The meaning of a word doesn’t change just because you use it incorrectly.
That is literally how language works. Words only mean what we mean when we say them.
So if I potato, you can ottoman?
If enough people agree, yes.
They don’t.
That’s actually the point. Nobody agrees that potato=ottoman but if enough people agree on a meaning it starts to become the meaning or at least a partial meaning. Maybe the point is moot with you but I get the feeling you wouldn’t understand the joke.
Language morphology, but you’re close. Except for that last sentence, technically. That’s some bullshit, right there. 🤣
It does if lots of people use it incorrectly
