An areola is more than a circle
When I was in third grade, we were working on an English unit focusing on synonyms and antonyms. During one particular exercise, we were broken out into small groups and made to come up with a synonym and antonym for our group's key word from this children's' thesaurus (I promise it was the thesaurus we were given!) Our group's word was circle and unfortunately I was the last "turn" in picking out a word and everyone ahead of me chose the most obvious words so I chose a word I had never seen before-- "areola." I spelled it, I compared it to the moon, I used it in sentence. I don't remember anyone, peers or teacher, having a reaction, but I have remembered that funny word for years. I have casually called circular things, thinking I'm being astute, "areolas" in adult life--in front of friends, colleagues, clients, you name it. Perhaps because I am a gay man, I have never naturally encountered this word in adult life until the other day when a friend was showing me her breast reduction scars and used the word "areola" to refer to what I now know to be her areolas. I complimented her on her fancy vocabulary. She broke my world by informing me that I have been unknowingly comparing everyday items, with full confidence, to breast tissue for the last 2 decades. Think I'll stick to "circle" from now on.