Language Interesting Facts

Posted in: Facts in vinopaul's Blog

The first word spoken on the moon was "okay."
Seoul, the South Korean capital, just means "the capital" in the Korean language
The name of all the continents end with the same letter that they start with
Panspermia is the idea that life on Earth originated on another planet.
An infestation of head lice is called pediculosis.
The medical name for the part of the brain associated with teenage sulking is "superior temporal sulcus".
Involuntary bad language, a symptom affecting about one in 10 people with Tourette's syndrome, is called "coprolalia".
The word "time" is the most common noun in the English language.
The clitoris derives its name from the ancient Greek word kleitoris, meaning "little hill".
Hexakosioihexekonta hexaphobias is the term for people who fear the number 666.
Publishers have coined the term "Brownsploitation" for the rash of books that have sprung up in the wake of Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code blockbuster.
The "you are here" arrow on maps is called an ideo locator
The word "lethologica" describes the state of not being able to remember the word you want
In English, "four" is the only digit that has the same number of letters as its value
Q is the only letter in the alphabet that does not appear in the name of any of the United States
The word "trivia" comes from the Latin "trivium" which is the place where three roads meet, a public square. People would gather and talk about all sorts of matters, most of which were trivial
TYPEWRITER, is the longest word that can be made using the letters only one row of the keyboard
"Speak of the Devil" is short for "Speak of the Devil and he shall come". It was believed that if you spoke about the Devil it would attract his attention. That's why when you're talking about someone and they show up people say "Speak of the Devil"
The word "Checkmate" in chess comes from the Persian phrase "Shah Mat," which means, "the King is dead"
The sentence "the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog" uses every letter in the English language
The only 15-letter word that can be spelled without repeating a letter is uncopyrightable.
Canada is an Indian word meaning "Big Village"
Stewardesses is the longest word typed with only the left hand
The most common name in the world is Mohammed
The longest non-medical word in the English language is FLOCCINAUCINIHILIPI LIFICATION, which means "the act of estimating as worthless".
Mafia in Old Arabic means 'sanctuary.'
The longest word in the Old Testament is "Malhershalahashbaz."
Karoke means 'empty orchestra' in Japanese.
The first message tapped by Samuel Morse over his invention the telegraph was: "What hath God wrought?"
The first words spoken by over Alexander Bell over the telephone were: "Watson, please come here. I want you."
Papaphobia is the fear of Popes
The Academy Award statue is named after a librarian's uncle. One day Margaret Herrick, librarian for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, made a remark that the statue looked like her Uncle Oscar, and the name stuck.
The first words spoken by Thomas Edison over the phonograph were: "Mary had a little lamb."
The three words in the English language with the letters "uu" are: vacuum, residuum and continuum.
A baby in Florida was named: Truewilllaughinglif ebuckyboomermani festdestiny. His middle name is George James
There are only four words in the English language which end in '-dous': tremendous, horrendous, stupendous, and hazardous
The word 'Bye' is used in both English and Spanish meaning the same thing
The infinity character on the keyboard is called a "lemniscate"
Good bye came from God bye which came from God be with you.

So-long came from the Arabic salaam and the Hebrew shalom

You won't find a "6" in Cameroon phone numbers--the native language has no sound for "x."
Clans of long ago that wanted to get rid of their unwanted people without killing them would burn their houses down--hence the expression "to get fired."
Until babies are six months old, they can breathe and swallow at the same time. Indeed convenient!
The average person's field of vision encompasses a 200-degree wide angle.
To find out if a watermelon is ripe, knock it, and if it sounds hollow then it is ripe.
Canadians can send letters with personalized postage stamps showing their own photos on each stamp.
Babies' eyes do not produce tears until the baby is approximately six to eight weeks old.
Plants watered with warm water grow larger and more quickly than plants watered with cold water.
Wearing headphones for just an hour will increase the bacteria in your ear by 700 times.
Grapes explode when you put them in the microwave.
Those stars and colors you see when you rub your eyes are called phosphenes.
Contrary to popular belief, a swallowed chewing gum doesn't stay in the gut. It will pass through the system and be excreted.
There is a hotel in Sweden built entirely out of ice; it is rebuilt every year.