As A Gardener (Who Also Decorates), Can I Ask Something?
Decorating By Chef_Stef Updated 22 Apr 2007 , 5:23pm by Chef_Stef
I'm curious why everyone refers to gerbera daisies as "Gerber daisies"? The genus is called gerbera. They were named for Dr. Traugott Gerber, but I have never read a garden book that refers to them as "Gerber daisies." Sometimes African daisies or Transvaal daisies, but never Gerber. I see a few online shopping sources that say gerber, but not any horticultural sites.
What gives? [/i]
well, not everyone - just here in the states i think. I had a Aussie friend who was going mad trying to find "Gerberas" for her wedding here in the states and half the places had no idea what she was talking about. I find a lot of people use the terms interchangeably.
but, per Wikopedia, the plant is names after German naturalist Traugott Gerber, so I can't see that calling it a "gerber daisy" is all that wrong.
jmt7174 -
The reason your friend had trouble finding gerberas here in the US is because, back in the olden days, they were called African Daisies here. Many florists, and some floral arranging classes, still refer to them this way.
Theresa 
Sometimes words just get revamped with more and more use. For example, I've seen people refer to getting a "perk" at work. The true term is "perq" (with a "Q") because it's actually short for "perquisite", which by definition is "an incidental payment, benefit, privilege, or advantage over and above regular income, salary, or wages".
The phrase "head over heels" is used to mean "intensely and completely", as in "head over heels in love". Actually, having your head over your heels is the normal way to be. The original phrase was "heels over head". Over time it's been revamped.
The word "irregardless" is considered a non-standard word, due to the double negative in the word. It's not really a word, thus that is why Webster's defines it as a non-standard word. however, people have been using it so much, they felt compelled to add it to the dictionary with the "non-standard" disclaimer. Much like the word "ain't".
My husband and both grew up thinking green peppers were called "mangos" because that's what our families called them. We were both adults before we found out a mango is a fruit!
I grew up called all margarine "butter". I was in my teens before I knew there was such a thing as "real" butter.
Submarine sandwiches are called "Heroes" or "Submarines" or "Hoagies" or "Poor Boys", depending on what part of the country you are in.
Turn Signals are sometimes called "blinkers" (which drives me nuts, because no one ever got a ticket for a "blinker violation"!).
Some words just evolve and the original or true meaning gets lost in history. For example, our childen will someday ask "Why do we say "dial" a phone?" They won't understand what "fine tuning" means because they've never had to adjust the fine tuning button on a TV.
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