Patently Absurd

The phrase "patently absurd" was coined in the late 1700's, when the newly founded U.S. Patent Office was flooded with thousands of applications for ridiculous, impractical inventions.

Subaru Outback

In Australia, the Subaru Outback is called the Serengeti.

Mr. Met

Mr. Met began as the mascot of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. His head was a globe, instead of a baseball, before he was adopted by the New York Mets ball club.

Pundits

Political commentators were first called "pundits" in the late 19th century, due to their reliance on puns to insult public figures.

Milli Vanilli

When their lip-syncing scandal first erupted, Milli Vanilli was weeks away from releasing their next single, a cover of a Pretenders song.

Soy

Soy was such an integral staple of the pre-Roman peoples of the Iberian Peninsula that the word survives to this day as the Spanish for "I am."

Pilgrims

The pilgrims at Plymouth first hunted turkeys not for food but to keep them from eating the settlers' crops.