A Page of Useless Language Facts
The words “naked” and “nude” are not the same. Naked implies unprotected. Nude means unclothed.
The word “geriatrics” was not coined until 1951.
To “decimate” does not mean to obliterate or wipe out. It means to destroy one-tenth of something. Originally, the word referred to a Roman military tradition in which an entire troop would be punished for disobedience by decimation, that is, by the killing of every tenth man. There are accounts of this form of punishment being used in the English and French armies up to the time of World War I.
The original name for the butterfly was “flutterby.”
In the vast majority of the world's languages, the word for “mother” begins with the M.
“Facetious” and “abstemious” are the only two words in the English language that contain the vowels a, e, i, o, and u in their proper order.
The word “live” spelled backward is “evil.”
Eskimos have more than twenty words to describe snow.
What is called a “French kiss” in England and America is known as an “English kiss” in France.
The most commonly used word in English conversation is “I.”
The act of snapping one's fingers has a name. It is called a “fillip.”
The language of Taki, spoken in parts of French Guinea, consists of only 340 words.
The words CHOICE COD read the same when held in front of the mirror upside-down.
Words that are really words:
bezel—the edge of a cutting tool.
callithump—a loud parade.
clerihew—a light satirical four-line verse containing specific reference to a person, invented by E. Clerihew Bentley (1875-1956). Clerihew wrote his first clerihew while still in school:
- Sir Humphry Davy
- Abominated Gravy.
- He lived in the odium
- Of having discovered Sodium.
googol—the figure 1 followed by 100 zeros.
haruspex—an ancient Roman priest who practiced fortunetelling by reading entrails of sacrificed animals.
hendecasyllabic—an adjective applied to a line of verse of eleven syllables.
Pneumoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis—a disease of the lungs developed by coal miners from breathing underground fumes.
pseudepigrapha—spurious writings, particularly those attributed to Biblical sources.
scop—an old english poet.
A “clue” originally meant a ball of thread. This is why one is said to “unravel” the clues of a mystery.
The ampersand (&) was once a letter of the English alphabet.
The word “gas,” coined by the chemist J.B. Van Helmont, is taken from the word chaos, which means “unformed” in Greek.
In Elizabethan slang the term “to die” meant to have an orgasm. This double entendre was often used by John Donne (The Prohibition, The Canonization), and by Shakespeare in King Lear.
The word “toast,” meaning a proposal of health, originated in Rome, where an actual bit of spiced, burned bread was dropped into wine to improve the drink's flavor, absorb its sediment, and thus make it more healthful.
The letter B took its present form from a symbol used by Egyptian hieroglyphics to represent a house. Its original Egyptian form looked very much like its modern one.
The word “Mikado” did not refer to the Japanese emperor himself but to the door of his loyal chamber. In medieval Japan it was considered in bad taste to speak of this great personage directly, so instead his existence was inferred by referring to the entrance of his place of residence.
The word “turnpike” originated in the days when toll collectors were armed with pikes, long-handled weapons to prevent travelers who refused to pay the tariff from using their roads.
E is the most frequently used letter in the English alphabet, Q the least.
The word “bamboo” has contributed two colloquialisms to the English language. First, we owe to it the word “joint,” meaning a disreputable gathering place, a dive. This is because the pipes used in opium dens were crafted of bamboo and had many “joints.” (It has been suggested that marijuana cigarettes are also know as “joints” because of their association with opium dens.) Second, there is the word “bamboozle,” which means to fool or cheat. This traces back to the Chinese custom of punishing swindlers by whacking them on the hands and back with bamboo poles. Any smart aleck so treated was a “bamboozler,” that is, one worthy of being tanned with bamboo.
The word “clodhopper” originated in early England as a term of derision for the peasantry. In those days farmers traveled by foot, and had to step or jump across clods of plowed Earth. Unlike the gentry, who traveled by carriage or by steed, the peasants were therefore “clodhoppers” --those who had to hop over clods.
The word “queue” is the only word in the English language that is still pronounced the same way when the last four letters are removed.
When sailors speak of sheets (as in “four sheets to the wind”) they are not talking about sails. A sheet in nautical terminology is a rope or a chain.
The jackrabbit is not a rabbit; it is a hare. A Jerusalem artichoke is not an artichoke; it is a sunflower. Arabic numerals are not Arabic; they were invented in India. India ink (sometimes called “Chinese ink”) was not known until recently in either China or India.
The word “tip,” meaning a gratuity, was originally an acronym standing for “To Insure Promptness.”
The word “robot” was coined in 1920 in a play, R.U.R. (the initals stood for Rossum's Universal Robots), written by the Czech dramatist Karel Capek.
Question: What is unusual about the sentence “Jackdaws love my big sphinx of quartz”? Answer: It is the shortest English sentence yet devised to include all the letters of the alphabet.
Rhubarb is named after the Volga River. In Greek the name of Volga is Rha, and barb means “uncultivated.” Rhubarb is thus a wild plant that grows along the Volga.
Cinderella's slipper, many scholars believe, was made of fur, not glass. The word verre, or “glass,” they claim, was incorrectly substituted in early versions of the story for the word vaire. In medieval French, vaire means “fur.”
The word “toady” originally referred to a magician's assistant who literally ate toads as part of the show. Toads, at one time, were thought to be poisonous; when the “toady” recovered from eating one of them, it was considered an indication of the magician's great power.
The term “freelance” was invented by Sir Walter Scott to refer to itinerant mercenary soldiers who sold their abilities to the highest bidder. At first such soldiers were known as “free companions.” Since they usually traveled with their own weapons, including lances, Scott dubbed them “freelancers.
A fireplace is called a “mantelpiece” because at one time people hung their coats (or “mantles”) over the fireplace to dry them.
In England, corn means wheat. In the Bible, corn means grain.
In Middle English the word “minister” meant “lowly person.” It was originally adopted as a term of humility for men of the church.
The term “hooker,” meaning a prostitute, originated with U.S. Army General Joseph Hooker, whose penchant for war was matched only by his predilection for paid female companionship. In New Orleans during the Civil war, Hooker spent so much time frolicking with ladies of the night that the women came to be called “Hooker's division.” Eventually these specialized “troops” became known simply as “hookers.”