if magic was a science, every aspect of it would be completely misnamed. Water magic would actually have more to do with colors or something, but it just so happens there's a lot of it naturally in rivers so it got called water magic. Fire magic wouldn't be truly magic at all but particular magically-triggered applications of well-understood chemistry. Life magic would actually show up in all kinds of non-living things.
in case it wasn't obvious, these are meant to reference the naming of hydrogen, the classification of 'fire' as a substance rather than a chemical reaction, and the whole thing with organic chemistry
@Felthry Also:
The word electricity comes from the Greek word elekron, which means amber. Which was especially good for experiments with static charges. :-)
(Somewhat interestingly, in the alternate world The Golden Compass happens in, they actually use the word 'amberic' instead of 'electric', for the same reason.)
@Felthry Good!
I do like the idea of similar happening with magic. :-)