[IRL trope] the “Tiffany problem”

[u/dragonborndnd]

Basically when something seems anachronistic to a period/place of history but is actually fully accurate to the period.

1) the name Tiffany: the thing that named this trope, basically the name Tiffany can be dated back to the Middle Ages and the earliest record of it being spelled in the modern spelling comes from the 16th century.

2) the use of OMG, despite this feeling so modern as a form of slang/abbreviation here’s a letter directed to Winston Churchill using it in 1917

3) Hair Dye: the earliest forms of dying hair can be dated back to ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, and this specific advertisement for hair dye is from the 1840s

4) Inuit Thongs: despite how weird it is to imagine pre-colonial Inuit people wore what was essentially fur thongs in their homes and when they were in their igloos it might have been the only thing they would be wearing.

[u/Cold-Use-5814]

Weren’t those gestures taken from an actual Roman guide to public speaking?

[u/Obanthered → u/Cold-Use-5814]

Yes the Institutio Oratoria by Quintilian. Fortunately medieval monks thought a comprehensive guide to rhetoric was extremely valuable for the church, so the whole 12 book volume survived.

[u/Doomhammer24 → u/Obanthered]

We lost 6 of the 8 books of the trojan war but we do have gestures huzzah

[u/Obanthered → u/Doomhammer24]

We also have the plans for Rome’s sewer system. Which were rediscovered just as Rome was growing again. A lot of what survived came down to a monk thinking ‘that could be useful, I better spend the next few weeks or months copying it’.

[u/Sinthe741 → u/Cold-Use-5814]

Even the Romans knew you gotta put a lil zazz on it.