What's The Difference? - People

 

What's The Difference?
PEOPLE

BLOODY MARY vs. MARY, QUEENS OF SCOTS
BLOODY MARY (a.k.a. Mary Tudor, Mary I of England)
*England’s first queen to rule on her own, from 1553 until her death in 1558
*only child of Henry VIII and his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, to survive into adulthood
*Anne Boleyn (Henry’s second wife) had the king’s first marriage voided, so her daughter with him, Elizabeth (yep, that Elizabeth), would be first in line for the throne
*upon Henry’s death, his sister’s granddaughter, Lady Jane Grey, was named ruler
*Mary fought to reinstate her parents’ marriage and rendered herself queen with support from the general population
*she also had the 16-year-old Jane executed for treason
*Mary earned the nickname “Bloody” for her persecution of Protestants; a devout Catholic, she used extreme methods, such as burning over 300 people at the stake, as punishment for heresy
MARY, QUEEN OF SCOTS
*member of the Stuart family, grand-niece of Henry VIII, who became monarch of Scotland at six days old in 1542
*eventually married the French dauphin (heir to the throne), followed by her own English cousin, then her lover, who was accused but acquitted of murdering the cousin
*being ruler of Scotland put Mary next-in-line for the English throne; not wanting to wait for her cousin-once-removed’s natural death, Mary plotted to have Elizabeth killed but was discovered and executed for treason in 1587, after 19 years in prison

DWARF vs. MIDGET vs. LITTLE PERSON
*these terms all describe a person with a height of 4’10” or less, with the average being around four feet tall
*the condition is medically called dwarfism and affects roughly 0.00009% of the worldwide population, or 651,700 people
DWARF tends to focus on people with disproportionate limbs and torsos
MIDGET is an out-dated term considered offensive because it was the word used when advertising “freak shows” at carnivals in the 1800s
LITTLE PERSON has been deemed the most-agreeable phrase when not calling someone with dwarfism by their actual name
*80% of people with dwarfism were born from average-sized parents

GEEK vs. NERD vs. DORK vs. DWEEB vs. DOOFUS
*all are slang words used to describe social outcasts
GEEK - has devoted interest in a specific topic
*a formerly-harsh word that also referred to circus performers who had less-than-favorable acts
NERD - intelligent and socially awkward; focused on a non-social hobby, such as trivia
*possible roots of this word include Dr. Seuss using it in his book If I Ran The Zoo, ‘drunk’ spelled backward (and with a silent K) to indicate that studious people do not party, and a 1940s dummy called Mortimer Snerd
DORK - dresses and/or acts in unconventional ways
*although commonly mis-labeled as a whale’s penis, the origin of ‘dork’ is probably a slang word for any creature’s member
DWEEB - wimpy
*may be a portmanteau of ‘dwarf’ and ‘feeb’, meaning feeble-minded, likely because the person’s parents did a lot of drugs
DOOFUS - foolish, such as someone looking for sunglasses that are on their head
*rhymes with the older slang word ‘goofus’ and/or is derived from the Scots word ‘doof’, meaning ‘idiot’

HALF-SIBLINGS vs. STEP-SIBLINGS
HALF-SIBLINGS share one and only one parent
STEP-SIBLINGS were both alive when one’s parent married one of other’s

LGBT+
LESBIAN - a woman who is sexually attracted to other women
GAY - a man who is sexually attracted to other men
BI-SEXUAL - a person who is sexually attracted to men and women, though the term has evolved to signify attraction to any two gender identities
TRANSGENDER - a person whose gender identity does not agree with the sex on their birth certificate
TRANSVESTITE - a person who dresses and acts as another gender without necessarily identifying with that group
TRANS-SEXUAL - a person who is in the process of looking like the gender they identify with, usually done by surgery and/or hormone treatment
DRAG QUEEN - a man who dresses like a woman without identifying as one, typically for entertainment purposes
CISGENDER - a heterosexual person who identifies with the sex on their birth certificate
QUESTIONING - a person who has taken no action to alter their sexual orientation nor gender identity but is not sure how they identify
INTERSEX - a person who is biologically neither sex and may have been born with an extra chromosome and/or atypical genitalia
ASEXUAL - a person who identifies as any gender but has a low or non-existent sex drive
PANSEXUAL - a person attracted to anyone, regardless of sexual or gender identity
DEMISEXUAL - a person who is only attracted to someone after establishing an emotional connection
NON-BINARY (a.k.a. Gender-fluid or Gender-queer) - a person who does not identify strictly as male or female
QUEER - an empowering or derogatory (depending on how it is spoken) term for a person who is one or more of the above, excluding cisgender

PIRATE vs. BUCCANEER vs. CORSAIR vs. PRIVATEER
PIRATE - blanket term to describe anyone roaming the seas looking to steal treasure (and other goods) from unsuspecting ships
BUCCANEER - worked in the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific coast of central America, primarily targeting Spanish ships
CORSAIR - operated in the Mediterranean Sea and was found on both sides of the war between European Christians and Ottoman Muslims
PRIVATEER - mercenary who does piratical deeds for the highest bidder

PRIEST vs. DEACON vs. MINISTER vs. PASTOR vs. REVEREND
PRIEST - ordained specifically into priesthood after years of study and practice
DEACON - performs many of the same services without being fully ordained
MINISTER - administers religious rites, such as baptism and marriage
PASTOR - can refer to any of the above; oversees, counsels, and teaches a congregation as opposed to, say, a monk, who practices religion in a mostly silent capacity
REVEREND - a person worthy of being revered, meaning respected; similar to calling a judge ‘honorable’
…
*to note, a rabbi and an imam are equivalent leaders in Judaism and Islam, respectively, though there are small differences within their denominations as well

PSYCHOLOGIST vs. PSYCHIATRIST
PSYCHOLOGIST - uses psychotherapy to treat mental conditions through discussion and/or behavioral intervention
PSYCHIATRIST - same as a psychologist but also has a medical degree and can monitor patients being treated with prescribed medications

PSYCHOPATH vs. SOCIOPATH
*these terms are not absolute, so doctors and mental health workers prefer anti-social personality to describe such people
PSYCHOPATH - cold, calculating, and manipulative
*serial killers and business CEOs have harbored these traits
SOCIOPATH - impulsive and nervous, often reacting to situations rather than creating them; could “snap” at any second for seemingly no reason; social norms and fitting in are difficult
*regarding conscience, a psychopath does not have one and will make decisions without concern for anyone involved and feel no remorse after, while sociopaths know the difference between right and wrong but disregard it and act how they wish

REDNECK vs. HICK vs. HILLBILLY
REDNECK – describes the skin of a farmer’s tan or burn
*being great at agriculture but not “city” issues made people use the term in a derogatory manner, which still happens today, though some “rednecks” proudly describe themselves as such
*this term may alternately or additionally refer to striking coal miners, who would wear red bandannas around their necks as a show of solidarity
HICK – former nickname for Richard; used in a negative way toward people from any small town
HILLBILLY – person from a small town in a hilly area, specifically within the Appalachian Mountains, where William was/is a common name

SECOND COUSIN vs. COUSIN REMOVED
SECOND, THIRD, ETC. cousins are all in the same generation
*if their parents are siblings, they are first cousins; grandparents = second cousins, and so on
REMOVED cousins can go in either generational direction from each other
*my first cousin’s child is my cousin once removed, as is my parent’s cousin; if the child has a kid, it would be my first cousin twice-removed

SOCRATES vs. PLATO vs. ARISTOTLE
*all were famous philosophers in ancient Greece
SOCRATES (469 – 399 ­_BCE)
*known as the father of Western Philosophy
*first documented thinker to question morals, ethics, and everyday life
*chose to live in poverty
*favored a government run by philosophers
*never wrote down his thoughts, which were instead recorded by his students
*the Socratic Method is to make people re-think their stances by asking questions instead of simply giving them information; “Why do you believe Earth is flat?” vs. “Here is a mountain of evidence proving Earth is not flat.”
*after a crushing military defeat, Athens found a scapegoat in the 70-year-old Socrates, charging him with impiety (disrespecting the gods) and moral corruption of Greek youth; the philosopher could have lived in exile but chose to die from drinking a beverage made from poison hemlock, saying it was his legal responsibility
*“An un-examined life is not worth living”
PLATO (~427 – ~347 _BCE)
*student of and primary writer about Socrates
*founder of political philosophy
*established The Academy, the western world’s first higher learning institution
*first person to describe non-sexual love, commonly known as a Platonic relationship
*most famous idea is the Theory of Forms, which suggests physical things are simply imperfect representations of ever-lasting ideas and thoughts; this basically means material possessions are not as important as knowledge
*Allegory of the Cave suggests that people who exist only inside a cave know that world but must step outside to begin true understanding
*the cause of Plato’s death is not known for certain but most scholars agree it happened in his 80s while in bed or at a wedding
*“Ignorance is the root and stem of every evil”
ARISTOTLE (384 – 322 _BCE)
*student of Plato who rejected his Theory of Forms
*founded The Lyceum school of philosophy
*first person to distinguish the many branches of science (biology, geology, etc.)
*believed the Sun revolved around Earth, eels (and some other animals) did not reproduce naturally, and Evolution was a terrible idea
*King Philip II of Macedon hired Aristotle to tutor his son and heir, Alexander The Great, to teach him about more than military triumph
*at age 62, Aristotle fled Athens after being accused of impiety and died from natural causes on the Greek island of Euboea (pronounced Eh-via)
*“Those who know, do. Those who understand, teach”

THE TALIBAN vs. ISIS vs. AL-QAEDA
*all of these militant groups have varying degrees of loyalty to traditional Muslim values and Sharia law- the idea that the Qur’an (Islamic holy book) should be obeyed
*the factions view Western life as a threat to Islam but disagree in ideology, often leading to conflicts with each other
THE TALIBAN
*refers to itself as the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan
*begun in 1994, its name means ‘students’ in Pashto, the official language of Afghanistan
*draws inspiration from tribal cultures while proclaiming to restore peace, though their strict enforcement of laws usually shows otherwise
ISIS
*stands for the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria
*formed in 2014 by people who were unhappy with the Taliban’s “loose” interpretation of Islam
*though they shun most modern conveniences, ISIS has notably embraced social media to recruit new members
ISIS-K
*branch of ISIS that focuses on the Khorasan Province in northern Iran, most of Afghanistan, and parts of central Asia
ISIL
*stands for the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, which includes land in Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, and Jordan
*ISIS and ISIL are the same group under different names
*these organizations are sometimes referred to as the “so-called Islamic State” because that is the name they gave themselves while not actually representing the state of Islam in general
AL-QAEDA
*name means ‘the foundation’ in Arabic
*emerged in 1988 Pakistan
*supports a literal interpretation of the Qur’an

VIRGIN MARY vs. MARY MAGDALENE
The VIRGIN MARY was the mother of Jesus, having become pregnant with him after the Immaculate Conception
*God selected Mary for many reasons, among them because she was a descendant of Abraham and that she was known as a good person (who was not yet married to Joseph)
MARY MAGDALENE was a follower of Jesus after he saved her from demon possession
*witnessed Jesus’s crucifixion and was the first person to see him after his resurrection
*was (probably) not a prostitute, as Pope Gregory mistakenly claimed in 591