The scientific name for the Giant Anteater is Myrmecophaga Tridactyla. This means “ant-eating with three fingers.”
100 Mind-Blowing Means Facts
Astronaut is a compound word derived from the two Ancient Greek words “Astro,” meaning “star,” and “naut” meaning “sailor.” So astronaut means “star sailor.”
The word “kimono” literally means a “thing to wear.” Ki is “wear,” and mono is “thing.”
Norway has a 25-year statute of limitation on murder. This means if the murder happened more than 25 years ago, they cannot be charged.
The motto on the United Kingdom’s Royal Coat of Arms is in French. The motto is “Dieu et mon droit,” which means “God and my right.”
Samsung means “three stars” in Korean. This was chosen by the founder because he wanted the company to be powerful and everlasting, like stars in the sky.
The word “velociraptor” comes from the Latin words “velox” which means swift, and “raptor,” which means robber. Literally – speedy robber!
Berries are simple fruits stemming from one flower. This means that pineapples, bananas, watermelons, pumpkins, and avocados are berries.
The commonly known phrase “to a T” means something that fits just right. Interestingly enough, this expression derives from a similar phrase “to a title,” which is a small mark that is used in spelling norms, like the dots of i’s or j’s, or an accent mark.
Owls have specialised feathers where the edges protrude out to dissipate airflow. This means that they can fly silently and are highly deadly hunters.
Around 15% of active Twitter accounts are social bots. This means there are nearly 48 million accounts that are not controlled by humans.
In Indonesian, there is a word, “Jayus,” which means “A joke told so poorly, and so unfunny that one cannot help but laugh.”
The word “Gymnastics” linguistically means “to train naked.” It is derived from the two Ancient Greek words “gumnasía” (athletic training, exercise) and “gumnós” (naked). This is because many Greek athletes would train naked for the Olympic games.
The word “oxymoron” is itself an oxymoron. This is because it derives from Ancient Greek, where “oxy” means sharp and “moros” means stupid.
The word “Android” means a human with a male robot appearance.
Kiss means “pee” in Swedish.
Earth’s rotation is changing speed. It’s slowing. This means that, on average, the length of a day increases by around 1.8 seconds per century. 600 million years ago a day lasted just 21 hours.
The Moon looks upside down in the Southern Hemisphere. Compared to the Northern Hemisphere, anyway. This means that the ‘Man in the Moon’ is upside down in the Southern Hemisphere and looks more like a rabbit.
You can see stars as they were 4,000 years ago with the naked eye. Without a telescope, all the stars we can see lie within about 4,000 light-years of us. That means at most you’re seeing stars as they were 4,000 years ago, around when the pyramids were being built in Egypt.
Vanilla is a member of the orchid family. This means “those little brown flecks in your vanilla bean ice cream are vanilla orchid seeds,” per the Smithsonian Institute.
The Philippines consists of 7,641 islands. The Philippines is an archipelago, which means it’s made up of a group of islands—7,641 islands, to be exact. That figure does not include the thousands of sandbars and other landforms that emerge during low tide.
Peanuts aren’t technically nuts. They’re legumes. According to Merriam-Webster, a nut is only a nut if it’s “a hard-shelled dry fruit or seed with a separable rind or shell and interior kernel.” That means walnuts, almonds, cashews, and pistachios aren’t nuts either. They’re seeds.
Thanks to 3D printing, NASA can email tools to astronauts. Getting new equipment to the Space Station used to take months or years, but the new technology means the tools are ready within hours.
Bananas grow upside down. Or technically, we peel them upside down. Naturally, they grow outward from their stems, but that means their bottoms face the sky. As they get bigger, the fruits turn toward the sun, forming that distinctive curve.
The # symbol isn’t officially called hashtag or pound. Its technical name is Octothorpe. The “octo” means “eight” and refers to its points, though reports disagree on where “Thorpe” came from. Some claim it was named after Olympian Jim Thorpe, while others argue it was just a nonsense suffix.
The word “aquarium” means “watering place for cattle” in Latin. Of course, today’s aquariums aren’t for cows. The first aquarium that looks like what you’d imagine was created in 1921 and opened in 1924 in England.
The heart of a shrimp is located in its head. They also have an open circulatory system, which means they have no arteries and their organs float directly in blood.
A cat spends on average 15 hours a day sleeping (jealous). This means the majority of its life is spent asleep.
The Pope can’t be an organ donor. All popes’ bodies belong to the Vatican when they die, which means no organ donation is allowed.
A kimono translates to “thing to wear.” Japanese people are known for their punctuality and precise way of life, but it seems they also have a distinct discipline of words. One of the interesting fun facts about Japan is that the word “kimono” literally translates to a “thing to wear.” Ki means “wear,” while mono means “thing”.
There are more than 24 time zones around the world. If the Earth’s time zones were only one hour apart, then we would have 24 time zones. However, many time zones only differ by 30 to 45 minutes. This means that there must be more than 24 existing time zones.
Soccer balls were once used for playing basketball. The first basketballs were not produced until 1894. This means that for three years after the invention of the game, people were using non-regulated balls.
The only innate fear we have at birth is the fear of falling and loud noises. All other fears we learn after birth are learned. These fears are more often learned through traumatic experiences and by social means.
Antares is 60,000 times larger than the sun. Antares, often referred to as “the heart of the scorpion” due to its location in the Scorpius constellation, is a red supergiant star. The name “Antares” is derived from the ancient Greek term “Anti-Ares,” which means “rival of Mars” because of its similar reddish hue to the planet Mars.
Bats have very thin leg bones. Their legs are not very good for use in other tasks apart from hanging upside down. The bones in their legs are also quite fragile which means they are unable to walk. Apart from their weak legs, their knees also face backwards.
Bulls are colour-blind. This means that a bull is not irritated by the colour red, but mostly due to the movement made by matadors. Bulls are unable to see colours within the red-green spectrum.
Saltwater takes 10 minutes to drown a person. This kind of water is hypertonic to the ion concentration in lung cells. This means that if you swallow the water, it will enter your bloodstream which will enter your lungs.
Gold never erodes. This is because it is chemically inert. This means that it does not react to the oxygen found in the atmosphere.
Pencil means “paintbrush.” It’s one of the interesting facts that sound like we’re kidding, but we’re serious. The word “pencil” comes from the Old French word pincel, which translates to “a small paintbrush.”
6.5 trillion cigarettes are sold worldwide per year. With this number, that means 18 billion cigarettes are sold per day.
152 people in the U.S. are named LOL. Laugh out loud, or lots of love? What it means, we may never know – but 152 people have LOL as their legit birth name. Most of these LOLs live in Wyoming.
You sweat an average of 26 gallons on your bed per year. This means that an average person sweats 1 cup of perspiration on his bed per day. How’s that for WTF facts?
When the moon is directly overhead, you weigh slightly less. The Moon’s gravitational force acting directly above an object reduces the Earth’s gravitational force – less gravitational pull on you means less weight.
The Matrix Code means sushi. The intricate green digits scrolling down the screen in The Matrix may look cryptic, but they were symbols from a scanned sushi cookbook.
In the Arabic language, the name of the country Sudan means ‘the land of the blacks.’
Fritos means “little fried things.” The name for Fritos Potato Chips comes from the Spanish word fritas, which means “little fried things.” We love a name that’s straight to the point.
The word “Checkmate” in chess comes from the Persian phrase “Shah Mat.” Shah Mat means “the king is dead.”
Pencils are yellow because of Chinese royalty. In the 1800s, the best graphite in the world came from China. The Americans wanted to pay tribute to the Chinese for the graphite used in their pencils. Yellow means royalty and respect in China, which is why the Americans manufactured their pencils in yellow. To this day, the default colour for pencils is still yellow.
The film has been used as an educational tool. “Schindler’s List” is often shown in schools and universities as a means of teaching about the Holocaust and promoting discussions about genocide and human rights.
Karaoke means “empty orchestra” in Japanese.
Elephants are the only animals that can’t jump. With elephants, they can’t jump as unlike other mammals the bones in the elephant’s legs point downwards which means that they do not have the ‘spring’ required to push off the ground.
The French word for left-handed is “gauche,” which also means awkward.
Earth’s rotation is changing speed. The Earth is slowing down, which means that, on average, the length of a day increases by around 1.8 seconds per century. If you do the math, a day lasted just 21 hours if you lived on Earth 600 million years ago!
Giraffes are more prone to be struck by lightning than humans. Each year, there are about 0.003 lightning deaths per thousand giraffes. This means that it is 30 times the rate at which lightning strikes humans.
The Tyrannosaurus rex most likely had feathers. The ancestors of the T-rex were recorded as having feathers, which means that this carried onto future generations.
The entire surface of your skin is replaced every month, which put another way means you have about 1,000 different skins in your life!
The tilt on the axis of Mars is 25 degrees which means that the planet experiences seasons like we do on Earth as different parts of the planet are closer to the sun at different times of its orbit.
Mars has very weak gravity. Gravity on Mars is 37% less than on Earth. This means that on Mars you could jump 3x higher than on Earth.
Elephants have a specific alarm call that means “human.”
Most mammals have seven neck vertebrae but both the manatee and the sloth have just six. This means that manatees can’t turn their heads.
In the game of tennis, a score of “love” means zero.
Asia is the largest continent on Earth. This also means it has the largest population with over 4.46 billion people!
Mars has lower gravity than Earth. That means a person that weighs 200 pounds on Earth would only weigh 76 pounds on Mars.
Scientists have discovered that the Greenland Shark can live for to live up to 500 years. This means there is a shark swimming today that was potentially alive when pilgrims settled in Jamestown.
You may have heard redheads are going extinct. This is not true. The gene that results in red hair is recessive, so both parents must carry it to produce a red-headed child. However, this fact also means that redheads can pop up generations down the line.
THE NAME ‘NARWHAL’ COMES FROM OLD NORSE. It means “corpse whale” as their skin colour resembles that of a drowned sailor. The scientific name means “one tooth, one horn”.
Get this – axolotls can regrow their body parts. Yep, you read that correctly and this isn’t the stuff of science fiction. If axolotls become injured they, like some other species of salamanders, can regrow missing limbs, including hands, feet and even tails. They can also regrow organs. This unique ability means they’re regularly used for scientific research.
The word “oysterhood” means “reclusiveness” or “an overwhelming desire to stay at home.”
The “O” before an Irish name, such as “O’Reilly,” means “descendant of.”
The word “porcupine” means “spiny pig” in French.
Octopus skin contains the same light-sensitive proteins as octopus eyes. This means its skin can “see” and respond to light without information from the eyes or brain.
To “snirtle” means to laugh with snorts.
The name “daisy” is thought to come from the Old English “daes eag.” “Daes eag” means “day’s eye,” after how the delicate flower opens at dawn.
The word “robot” comes from the Czech word “robota,” which means “forced labour, compulsory service, drudgery.”
71% of people in Iceland have a Costco membership. With just under 357,000 people, Iceland is far from being an overly-populated country. That means that there are around 253,000 Icelanders with access to the members-only wholesale retailer. While this is far less than the number of members in the US, there’s only one Costco store in the entire country!
The # symbol isn’t officially called a hashtag or a pound. It’s technically called an “octothorpe.” The “octo-” means “eight” to refer to its points.
The term “lawn mullet” means having a neatly manicured front yard and an unmowed mess in the back.
The Greek name for the mosquito is “anopheles,” which means “good for nothing.”
The word “parakeet” literally means “long tail.”
The word “everywhen” means all the time or always.
A German word for nightmare is “alptraum,” which means “elf dream.” In German folklore, elves were dangerous figures who could control dreams and create nightmares.
It’s illegal to be an astrologer in Yamhill, Oregon. The practice of all “occult arts” including, fortune telling, phrenology, palmistry, clairvoyance, mesmerism, or spiritualism as a means of divination or giving advice is illegal in this city.
The word “robot” originated from a Czech word that means “forced labour.”
The First Computer ever (ENIAC). The ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer) made history as the first computer in the world (which was electronic programmable). Development of the computer was completed in 1945, and the computer entered service in December of that year. ENIAC could displace the computational power of 2,400 human beings for $500,000. ENIC relied on octal-base radio tubes to function. However, these tubes constantly burned out daily and required replacement. This means that ENIAC ran about 50% of the time and experienced downtime for tube replacements otherwise. More specialised and durable tubes eventually became available, leading to failures every one to two days.
“Android” is gender-specific. The word “Android” literally means a human with a male robot appearance. The female equivalent of this word is a “Gynoid.”
The @ symbol was chosen kind of randomly. The man who was writing email programs had to determine how to determine the user and the machine that the user was on. He chose the symbol because it means “at,” and it wasn’t used as much as other symbols.
In Morse Code -.- means k.
“lbs” comes from the Latin word “libra,” which means “pound.”
The word graffiti originates from both Greek and Italian – the Greek word “graphein” which means “to write,” and the Italian word “graffito,” which means “a scratch.”
Gravity’s effect on time isn’t limited to intergalactic travel. Here on Earth, gravity can vary for several reasons, including your altitude, since you’re changing your distance from the centre of the Earth. That means if you put a bunch of synchronised atomic clocks at various altitudes, eventually those clocks would fall out of sync. A clock at the top of Mount Everest and one at sea level would, over the entire 4.5 billion-year history of the planet, have diverged by about a day and a half.
There are 20,323,379 lines of code in the Linux kernel as of 2018. That might sound like a lot but it’s the smallest the kernel has been for some time! Even so, despite the recent reductions, the huge line count means Linux remains the single largest open-source project on the planet.
Ubuntu is an African word, or rather a philosophy, which means “I am what I am because of who we all are”. Its logo is Circle of Friends which is a representation of three people holding arms, representing a community that supports each other.
London has the world’s longest-running show: At St. Martins Theatre in the West End in London, the world’s longest-running show is being played. Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap has been running since 1952, which means that the show has been running for more than 70 years now. The show started as a radio play, called Three Blind Mice, and follows the story of seven strangers snowed in at a home in the countryside.
On some selected British food products you will see a royal stamp and it means that the product has been bought by the Royal Family for at least five years.
The queen is officially appointed as the swan keeper of England. It means that the queen owns all the swans in England.
The term “check” or “cheque” is derived from the game of chess. Putting the king in check means his choices are limited, just like a modern-day cheque that limits opportunities for forgery and alteration.
Different cultures perceive and utilise money diversely, with some cultures prioritising saving and investing, others focusing on living for the moment and spending, and some using money as a means of social status and power.
Back in 2020, only 9% of firms reported using AI tools like machine learning and voice recognition. However, the market was by no means small – it was worth $10 billion, and it’s continued to grow, with projections that it’ll reach $27 billion by 2026.
Low-code or no-code AI is a big trend in 2022 that would pave the way for the “ongoing ‘democratization’ of AI and data technology.” This means that people could customise AI with only written or voice instructions that don’t require complex technical knowledge.
Facebook’s AI team has been hard at work developing AI that can understand the content of videos and put it to use. Though what this means remains somewhat vague, an innocent part of it would be automated video captions, for instance.