Word facts and facts about words, from the Random Facts shelf.
21 facts on this shelf
Prairie dogs, those little pups popping in and out of holes on vacant lots and rural rangeland, are talking up a storm. They have different "words" for tall human in yellow shirt, short human in green shirt, coyote, deer, red-tailed hawk and many other creatures.
The name Jeep came from the abbreviation used in the army for the "General Purpose" vehicle, G.P.
The entrepreneurial mind thrives in the environment uncertainty, diversity of culture, talent, and opportunity
action oriented
achievement motivated
need to achieve
self-starter
persuasive
promoter
resourceful
tenacious
resilient
tolerant of ambiguity
The name Wendy was made up for the book "Peter Pan."
Half of all living things live on 6% of the land on the planet, the rain forest. No word on how much this fact changes everyday, but it's safe to say it's an estimate.
There is no single cat called the panther. The name is commonly applied to the leopard, but it is also used to refer to the puma and the jaguar. A black panther is really a black leopard.
The Canary Islands were not named for a bird called a canary. They were named after a breed of large dogs. The Latin name was Canariae insulae - "Island of Dogs."
Alma mater means bountiful mother, a title Romans gave to goddesses. In latin it means nourishing mother.
The only 15 letter word that can be spelled without repeating a letter is uncopyrightable.
When Albert Einstein died, his final words died with him. The nurse at his side didn't understand German.
The longest word in the English language is pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis
Alma mater means nourishing mother in Latin, To the romans it meant "bountiful mother."
In Shakespeare's time, mattresses were secured on bed frames by ropes when you pulled on the ropes the mattress tightened, making the bed firmer to sleep on. Hence the phrase, "Goodnight, sleep tight."
Obstreperous means resisting control or restraint in a difficult manner; unruly.... use it against someone, smile, and they'll think it was a compliment.
The longest one syllable words in the English Language are screeched and strengths
The ball of chewed food in your mouth (before you swallow) is called a bolus. Introduce this fact to the dinner table in polite company.
A new study (2/08) suggests that sadness leads to shopping.
According to the study that will be published in the June 2008 number of Psychological Science, sadness leads to ego-centrist thinking. In other words, a sad person tends to transform into a shopaholic, willing to spend extra money on the same item than neutral-emotion people would buy for a lot less.
“It is the combination of sadness and self-focus that drives the effect, and it turns out that sadness leads to an increase in self-focus,” said Cynthia Cryder, co-author to the study, AFP quotes. “What we think is going on is that sad and self-focused people are feeling pretty bad about themselves and have a decreased valuation, and one way to do this is by acquiring material goods.”
Oh yeah, it also says this therapy does not work. If you’re sad and feel like shopping, don’t!
In early times various body parts were used as tools and guides, hence the word "feet," or "the rule of thumb."
The term, "taxicab", was formed from combining the word, taximeter and cabriolet. Taximeter is a tool for measuring time and distance and a cabriolet is a 2 wheeled 1 horse carriage.
Hibernation is not a deep sleep but, an actual state of dormant existence that can last weeks even months for certain types of animals. The word hibernation came from the Latin word, "wintering".
Congress is also known as the legislative branch of the U.S. government, in other words, they are the law makers.