Language Bizarre Facts Page 2

Bizarre Fact #51:
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The Sanskrit word for "war" means "desire for more cows."

Bizarre Fact #52:
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When a film is in production, the last shot of the day is the "martini shot," the next to last one is the "Abby Singer".

Bizarre Fact #53:
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Hara kiri is an impolite way of saying the Japanese word "seppuku" which means, literally, "belly splitting."

Bizarre Fact #54:
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A bird watching term: peebeegeebee = a pied-billed grebe.

Bizarre Fact #55:
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Big cheese and "big wheel" are Medieval terms of envious respect for those who could afford to buy whole wheels of cheese at a time, an expense few could enjoy. Both these terms are often used sarcastically today.

Bizarre Fact #56:
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When two words are combined to form a single word (e.g., motor + hotel = motel, breakfast + lunch = brunch) the new word is called a "portmanteau."

Bizarre Fact #57:
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The slash character is called a virgule, or solidus. A URL uses slash characters, not back slash characters.

Bizarre Fact #58:
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Corduroy comes from the French, "cord du roi" or "cloth of the king."

Bizarre Fact #59:
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In the Greek alphabet "X" is the first letter for the word Christ, "Xristos." Xmas means "Christ's mass."

Bizarre Fact #60:
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If you come from Manchester, you are a Mancunian.

Bizarre Fact #61:
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There are six words in the English language with the letter combination "uu." Muumuu, vacuum, continuum, duumvirate, duumvir and residuum.

Bizarre Fact #62:
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The abbreviation "ORD" for Chicago's O'Hare airport comes from the old name "Orchard Field."

Bizarre Fact #63:
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Telephone is derived from two Greek words, tele + phone, meaning far off voice or sound.(Tele, far off + phone, voice or sound).

Bizarre Fact #64:
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The word for "name" in Japanese is "na-ma-e," in Mongolian "nameg."

Bizarre Fact #65:
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Polish is the only word in the English language that when capitalized is changed from a noun or a verb to a nationality.

Bizarre Fact #66:
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Facetious and abstemious contain all the vowels in the correct order, as does arsenious, meaning "containing arsenic."

Bizarre Fact #67:
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Sheriff came from Shire Reeve. During early years of feudal rule in England, each shire had a reeve who was the law for that shire. When the term was brought to the United States it was shortened to Sheriff.

Bizarre Fact #68:
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The ball on top of a flagpole is called the truck.

Bizarre Fact #69:
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The difference between a "millennium" and a "chiliad"? None. Both words mean "a period of one thousand years", the former from Latin, the later from Greek.

Bizarre Fact #70:
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The stress in Hungarian words always falls on the first syllable.

Bizarre Fact #71:
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The word for "dog" in the Australian aboriginal language Mbabaran happens to be "dog."

Bizarre Fact #72:
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The side of a hammer is a cheek.

Bizarre Fact #73:
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The initials for morning and evening are based on latin words—ante meridiem and post meridiem. "Ante," of course means "before" and "post" means "after." "Meridiem" means "noon."

Bizarre Fact #74:
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A "pogonip" is a heavy winter fog containing ice crystals.

Bizarre Fact #75:
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The little bits of paper left over when holes are punched in data cards or tape are called Chad.

Bizarre Fact #76:
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The loop on a belt that holds the loose end is called a "keeper".

Bizarre Fact #77:
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Las Vegas means "the meadows" in Spanish. Ironically, the city in the desert was once abundant in water and vegetation.

Bizarre Fact #78:
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The word "mullet" describes a hairstyle worn, particularly in the southern USA, which is characterized by short hair on the top and sides, with very long hair in the back.

Bizarre Fact #79:
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Quisling is the only word in the English language to start with "quis."

Bizarre Fact #80:
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The French equivalent of "Pumpkin" (our pet name) is calling them "Chou-Chou" which is little cabbage.

Bizarre Fact #81:
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In ancient Egypt, the apricot was called the "egg of the sun."

Bizarre Fact #82:
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The equivalent of calling someone a jerk in English is calling them a pickle in French.

Bizarre Fact #83:
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Beets reminded early cooks of a bleeding animal when they cut them open, so they started calling them "beets." This was derived from the French word bête, meaning "beast."

Bizarre Fact #84:
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The phrase "a red letter day" dates back to 1704, when holy days were marked in red letters in church calendars.

Bizarre Fact #85:
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The phrase "guinea pig" originated when a tax was imposed on powder for wigs in England to help pay for the war with Napoleon. The list of those who had paid the guinea (one pound, one shilling) was posted on their parish church door. As they were the wealthy of the day, they became known as the guinea pigs.

Bizarre Fact #86:
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Mothers were originally named mama or mommy (in many languages) because they have mammary glands.

Bizarre Fact #87:
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The word "yo-yo" itself was a registered trademark of Duncan until 1965.

Bizarre Fact #88:
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The expression "getting someone's goat" is based on the custom of keeping a goat in the stable with a racehorse as the horse's companion. The goat becomes a settling influence on the thoroughbred. If you owned a competing horse and were not above some dirty business, you could steal your rival's goat (seriously, it's been done) to upset the other horse and make it run a poor race. From goats and horses it was linguistically extended to people: in order to upset someone, "get their goat."

Bizarre Fact #89:
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Upper and lower case letters are named 'upper' and 'lower', because in the time when all original print had to be set in individual letters, the 'upper case' letters were stored in the case on top of the case that stored the smaller, 'lower case' letters.

Bizarre Fact #90:
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In India and Iran, the part of the house reserved for women is called a "zenana."

Bizarre Fact #91:
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Pregnant goldfish are "twits."

Bizarre Fact #92:
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The word "alcatraz" is Spanish for "pelican".

Bizarre Fact #93:
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The Chinese ideogram for 'trouble' depicts two women living under one roof'.

Bizarre Fact #94:
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The alteration of the architectural appearance of a city by the construction of skyscrapers and high-rise buildings is known as "Manhattanization". The term refers to the New York borough Manhattan.

Bizarre Fact #95:
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The first college to use the word "campus" to describe its grounds was Princeton. "Campus" is Latin for "field."

Bizarre Fact #96:
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The English-language alphabet originally had only 24 letters. One missing letter was J, which was the last letter to be added to the alphabet. The other latecomer to the alphabet was U.

Bizarre Fact #97:
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The phrase "jet lag" was once called "boat lag", back before airplanes existed.

Bizarre Fact #98:
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Dr. Seuss coined the word "nerd" in his 1950 book "If I Ran The Zoo"

Bizarre Fact #99:
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Mountains are formed by a process called orogeny.

Bizarre Fact #100:
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A "quidnunc" is a person who is eager to know the latest news and gossip, otherwise, a busybody.