Today I found out the origins of the Jolly Roger flags. Ships throughout history typically stocked a variety of different flags used for sending a message, signaling other ships, and for identifying themselves. For instance, in the 17th and 18th centuries, English privateers were to fly a specific version of the Union Jack, distinguishing themselves from English naval vessels which […]
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Today I found out why short movie advertisement clips are called “trailers”, even though they are typically shown before the movie. It turns out, the first movie trailers occurred not at the beginning of the films, as they do today, but rather at the end of the films. They were called “trailers” because the advertisements would be spliced directly on the end of […]
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Today I found out AstroTurf was originally named “ChemGrass” before being used by the Houston Astros Major League Baseball team in the Astrodome. Contrary to popular belief, AstroTurf was not first used or invented for the Houston Astros. For instance, before being used by the Astros, it was used at such sporting venues as Moses Brown School in Rhode Island, […]
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Today I found out that the correct term for referring to a group of cats is ‘clowder’. Interestingly, there are also two other valid ways to refer to a group of cats, other than just saying “group of cats” or “cats”. Those other two terms are ‘clutter’ and ‘glaring’. In addition to this, if one wants to refer to a group of […]
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Today I found out the French word for “paperclip” is “trombone”. The word trombone originally comes from the Italian “tromba”, which comes from the same Latin word, “tromba”, both retaining the same meaning: trumpet. In this case, the ending with the added “one” (tromb-one), indicates “large”. So, essentially, trombone means “large trumpet”. This has been the name of the instrument […]
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Today I found out why flavored carbonated beverages are called “soft drinks”. It turns out, soft drinks aren’t just flavored carbonated beverages. “Soft Drink” refers to nearly all beverages that do not contain significant amounts of alcohol (hard drinks). The term “soft drink” though is now typically used exclusively for flavored carbonated beverages. This is actually due to advertising. Flavored […]
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Today I found out the origin of the phrase “pipe dream”, meaning “a fantastic hope or plan that is generally regarded as being nearly impossible to achieve.” This phrase first popped up in the 19th century, with the earliest known documented case coming from Chicago, Illinois; specifically, coming from the December of 1890 issue of the Chicago Daily Tribune, in […]
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Today I found out where the words “Crayola” and “Crayon” come from. The word “Crayola” was originally thought up by Alice Binney. Binney, a one-time school teacher, combined the French word “craie”, meaning “chalk”, with “ola”, shortened from the French word “oléagineux”, meaning “oily”. Oléagineux derives from the Latin “oleāginus”, which is the adjective form of “olea”, meaning more or […]
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Today I found out where the ampersand symbol and name came from. The symbol for “&” comes from combination of letters in the Latin for “and”, “et”. Specifically, in Old Roman cursive, it became common to combine e’s and t’s, which produced something like this: Over the next six centuries the ampersand gradually became more elaborate until we get the […]
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Today I found out the symbol on the “pound” or “number” key (#) is also called an “octothorpe”. The origins of this term date back to the 1960s and 1970s in Bell Labs with the first documented place this word showed up being in a U.S. patent filed by Bell Labs in 1973. The exact etymology of this word isn’t […]
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Today I found out what the “bee” in “spelling bee” means. While no one knows exactly where the word derives from, the “bee” in “spelling bee” simply means something to the effect of “gathering” or “get together”. The earliest documented case of this word appearing with this meaning was in 1769, referring to a “spinning bee”, where people would gather […]
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Today I found out why the toilet is also often called “The Crapper”. It all started with U.S. soldiers stationed in England during WWI. The toilets in England at the time were predominately made by the company “Thomas Crapper & Co Ltd”, with the company’s name appearing on the toilets. The soldiers took to calling toilets “The Crapper” and brought […]
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Today I found out the words “blond” and “blonde” are not wholly synonymous. So what’s the difference between the words “blond” and “blonde”? (besides the obvious extra ‘e’) 😉 The difference is simply in what gender the word is referring. When referring to a woman with yellow hair, you should use the feminine spelling “blonde”. When referring to a male […]
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Today I found out there is nothing that comes after the sequence “once, twice, thrice”. Interestingly, even though these words are roughly equivalent, differing only in the numeric value they refer to, it is now considered poor English to use “thrice” instead of the equivalent “three times”. At the same time, it is considered poor English to use “one time” […]
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Today I found out where the word “mouse” comes from. “Mouse” comes from the Sanskrit word for mouse, “musuka”, which in turn derives from the Sanskrit “mus” meaning “thief” or “robber”, presumably referring to the fact that mice like to steal food from humans, particularly grains and fruits. The Ancient Romans then used the word “mus” to refer to rodents […]
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Today I found out the difference between discrete and discreet. Simply put, “discreet” describes showing “reserve, prudence, or cautiousness” in one’s behavior or speech. “Discrete”, on the other hand, means “distinct, separate, or unrelated”. A quick and easy mnemonic to remember the difference is to see that in “discrete”, unlike “discreet”, the “e’s” are separated and the definition itself is […]
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Today I found out where the tradition of yelling “Geronimo” when jumping out of a plane came from. In the 1940s, the U.S. Army was testing out the feasibility of having platoons of soldiers parachute from air planes. One of the first units to attempt to group jump out of a plane was located in Fort Benning, Georgia. On the […]
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Today I found out the color orange was named after the fruit, not the other way around. Before then, the English speaking world referred to the orange color as geoluhread, which literally translates to “yellow-red”. The word orange itself was introduced to English through the Spanish word “naranja”, which came from the Sanskrit word nāraṅga, which literally means “orange tree”. […]
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