Astronaut is a compound word derived from the two Ancient Greek words “Astro,” meaning “star,” and “naut” meaning “sailor.” So astronaut means “star sailor.”
100 Mind-Blowing Words Facts
Popularized by Shakespeare’s play, many people think Julius Caesar’s last words were, “And you, Brutus?” In reality, he said, “You too, my child?”
The word “velociraptor” comes from the Latin words “velox” which means swift, and “raptor,” which means robber. Literally – speedy robber!
Mr. and Mrs. originated from using the words master and mistress.
“Rap God” by Eminem packs 1,560 words into a 6-minute 4-second song. It holds the world record for most words in a hit single.
Marie Antoinette’s last words were to her executioner after accidentally stepping on his foot, saying, “Pardon me, sir, I meant not to do it.”
Mickey Mouse was the first-ever cartoon character to talk. In the 1929 episode, The Karnival Kid, Mickey’s first words were “Hot dogs!”
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.
You’re not allowed to swear if playing in Wimbledon. Because of this, line judges have to learn curse words in every language.
Bob Marley’s last words were, “Money can’t buy life.”
The whole Harry Potter series contains 199 chapters, 4,224 pages, and 1,090,739 words and has been made into 19 hours and 39 minutes of the film.
The fear of long words is called Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia. The 36-letter word was first used by the Roman poet Horace in the first century BCE to criticise those writers with an unreasonable penchant for long words. It was American poet Aimee Nezheukumatathil, possibly afraid of their surname, who coined the term how we know it in 2000.
Dogs tilt their heads when you speak to them to better pinpoint familiar words. Your dog is tilting its head when you speak to it to pinpoint where noises are coming from more quickly. This is done to listen out more accurately for familiar words such as ‘walkies’ and helps them to better understand the tone of your voice. If a dog doesn’t tilt its head that often (as those with shorter muzzles might), it’s because it relies less on sound and more on sight.
A fear of long words is called Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia.
Scotland has 421 words for snow. Yes, 421! Some examples: are sneesl (to start raining or snowing); feefle (to swirl); and flinkdrinkin (to light snow).
The French-language Scrabble World Champion doesn’t speak French. New Zealand native Nigel Richards memorized the entire French Scrabble dictionary, which has 386,000 words, in nine weeks to earn his title. He has also won the English World Scrabble Championship three times, the U.S. national championships five times, and the U.K. Open Scrabble tournament six times. This comes 20 years after 28-year-old Richards first played the game.
“OK” most likely stands for fake words. In the 1830s, people jokingly spelt abbreviations incorrectly. One of the most famous: “All correct” turned into “orl korrekt,” and then of course into OK. Historians think it stuck because Martin Van Buren—known as Old Kinderhook, after his hometown in New York—supporters called themselves the OK Club when he was campaigning for reelection.
Scotland has more than 400 words for snow. There are a lot of weird facts out there. But how many of them involve word choice? In Scotland, yes, there are more than 400 words for snow. There are 421, to be exact!
The Spanish national anthem has no words. The ‘Marcha Real’ is one of only four national anthems in the world (along with those of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, and San Marino) to have no official lyrics.
You can’t move or touch William Shakespeare’s bones. William Shakespeare’s legacy doesn’t stop at his plays and how many words he created – but even in the afterlife, he leaves a lasting display of his wit. Buried in 1616, the playwright was said to have written his tombstone inscription which reads: “Good friend, for Jesus’ sake forebearer, To digg the dust enclosed heare; Bleste be the man that spares thes stones, And curst be he that moves my bones.”
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”.
Mr. and Mrs. came from the words master and mistress. Mind? Blown. The first use of the abbreviated Mr. and Mrs. were traced to a letter written in the 1600s by an unknown R. P. addressed to William Farington Esqu.
The word “friends” is said in every episode of Friends. The 90s television hit also had the words “Oh. My. God.” mentioned 1,027 times by its characters for its entire run.
Dogs can understand up to 250 words and gestures. The average dog is as smart as a two-year-old child.
The French Scrabble World Champion doesn’t speak French Nigel Richards of New Zealand memorized the entire French Scrabble dictionary (386,000 words) in nine weeks to bag the title. Richards had been playing Scrabble for 20 years since.
Scotland has over 400 words to refer to snow. One of Scotland’s three official languages has a great extent of expressive phrases for snow. A few of these words include snaw (snow) and flindrinkin (light snow showers).
Alaska is the only state whose name is on a single row on the keyboard. A and S are right next to each other, and so are L and K. Alaska is also one of the few words you can type on the second line of the QWERTY keyboard.
Eminem’s ‘Rap God’ holds the world record for the most words in a hit single. The 6-minute song has 1,560 words in total and is all delivered clearly by the artist. That’s a little over 4 words per second.
Orange is not the only word in the English language that cannot be rhymed. Other words include silver, purple, and month. Go on, try to think of anything that rhymes with them.
Sixth Sick Sheik’s sixth sheep’s sick is one of the hardest tongue twisters in the world. Competitions are held all over the world to see if people can perform every single known tongue twister properly. One rule in tongue twister competitions is to include a sentence that is over 15 words long.
The word “Typewriter” is the longest word you can type using only one row of the keyboard. Other words you could also try typing are pretty, power, and tweety.
The oldest English word is ‘town’. This is one of the oldest words in the English language that is still in use. The first dictionary took note of this in 1755.
Roman Polanski had pee thrown at his face during Chinatown. If you’ve had any experience making a video group project, you’d know the high-tension environment of productions. Fights are pretty much inevitable. One of the most iconic cinema fights and funny facts: During the shoot for Chinatown, Faye Dunaway asked for her character’s motivation in one particular scene. Instead of offering advice, Roman Polanski yelled, “Say the fucking words. Your salary is your motivation.” This friction continued until the director wouldn’t let Dunaway take a toilet break. Fed up, Dunaway threw a coffee cup with her pee in his face.
Dogs can understand up to 250 words and gestures. The average dog is as smart as a two-year-old kid.
Many words start with Q that are not followed by a U. In North American Scrabble, acceptable words with a Q and not a U are qi, qat, qaid, qai, qadi, qoph, qanat, tranq, faqir, sheqel, qabala, qabalah, qindar, qintar, qindarka, mbaqanga, and qwerty. This applies to their plural forms as well.
President Kennedy was the fastest random speaker in the world with upwards of 350 words per minute.
The “sixth sick sheikh’s sixth sheep’s sick” is said to be the toughest tongue twister in the English language. This tongue twister is considered the toughest one to say by the Guinness Book of Records known as “sixth sick sheikh’s sixth sheep’s sick”. This tongue twister is extremely difficult to say as this string of words quickly multiple times. This may not make much sense, but then tongue twisters are not more than just a series of words put together to exercise your tongue.
For now, Scotland has 421 words. Some examples of them would be skelf, sneesl, spitters, feefle, finnikin and many more.
Sean Wrona, a left-handed typist, set the record for the fastest typing speed on a keyboard, typing at a staggering 256 words per minute.
The Spanish national anthem has no words. The “Marcha Real” is one of only four national anthems in the world (along with those of Bosnia, Herzegovina, Kosovo, and San Marino) to have no official lyrics.
Dogs tilt their heads to pinpoint the words you’re saying. They do this to spot familiar words.
The fear of long words is, in fact, a long word: Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia. American poet Aimee Nezheukumatathil coined the word as we know it today. However, it was the Roman poet Horace who first used the word in the first century to criticize writers using long words.
Scotland has more than 421 words for “snow”. Skelf, anyone?
SPAM is a mash-up of the words “spice” and “ham.”
The indigenous people of Finland, the Saami, have more than 400 words for the food, tools and other products taken from reindeer. Their word for reindeer, rain go, maybe where the common name is derived.
Sloths, moths and algae have a beneficial relationship: The pyralid moth is a species of moth that lives in the sloth’s fleece. There is also an algae species that grows in the grooved hair of the sloth. Scientists believe that the moth transports nutrient-rich waste from the sloth’s poop to fertilize the algae. In other words, the moths are algae farmers on the sloth’s back. And guess what else? The algae is a key source of food for the sloth!
“E” is the most common letter in the English language, appearing in 11% of all words. “A” is next and appears in 8.5% of words, while “Q” is the rarest letter, only appearing in .2% of words.
Talking to your dog might not be crazy after all. Dogs are highly intelligent and can learn some English. Dogs can learn up to 165 words, particularly words with the hard “t” or “r.” This might explain why all dogs recognise the word “treat.”
Capitonyms are words which change their meaning if the first letter is capitalized. For example: Turkey (the country) and Turkey (the bird).
Dr. Seuss wrote “Green Eggs and Ham” to win a bet against his publisher who thought that he could not complete a book with only 50 words.
The words written on Twitter every day would fill a book of 10 million pages.
Dogs are capable of understanding up to 250 words and gestures and have demonstrated the ability to do simple mathematical calculations.
Victor Hugo’s novel Les Miserable contains a sentence that is 823 words long.
The term “astronaut” comes from Greek words that mean “star” and “sailor.”
The longest sentence ever printed is 823 words, appearing in Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables.
Cartoonist Mort Walker, the creator of Beetle Bailey, came up with names for the things we often see in comics and cartoons: “briffit” is the dust cloud a character makes when he runs away quickly; “plewds” are the beads of sweat when a character is under duress; and “grawlix” are symbols such as “#@*%” that stand in for curse words.
A mash-up of two words to make a new word (such as breakfast and lunch into brunch, or motel from motor and hotel) is called a portmanteau. In case you’re wondering, the word “portmanteau” itself is not a portmanteau; it’s a compound word that refers to a duel-sided suitcase.
Everyone uses Google as a spellchecker. Most everyone, anyway! 97% of people type in words to Google just to see if they spelled it right. I know I’m definitely among that 97%!
Google searches hit the billions every month. There are over 35 billion Google searches each month. In May 2019, the top three most Googled words were “Facebook” with 233 million searches, “YouTube” with 194 million searches, and “Amazon” with 103 million searches.
Many graffiti artists tag their work. “Tagging” is a way for street artists to sign their names anonymously. They often use random words or symbols and then embellish them with stars or crowns.
There are two ways to think of the length of a day on Earth. Though you probably learned that one day on Earth is 24 hours, it takes the planet 23 hours, 56 minutes, and 4.0916 seconds to rotate on its axis. This is the difference between a solar day and a sidereal day—a solar day is 24 hours, whereas a sidereal day is roughly four minutes shorter. We measure solar time based on the sun’s position in the sky; a sidereal day is measured based on the location of the “fixed” stars. In other words, a sidereal day is the time it takes for a distant star or constellation to appear on the same meridian.
Each Ubuntu release has a code name made up of two words starting with the same alphabet. These alphabets are incremented in each release. The first word of the code name is an adjective and the second word is an endangered species or a mythical character. Read more about the Ubuntu release schedule, version name, and codenames.
In 2021 the most common initial attack vector was compromised credentials (IBM): IBM reported the most common initial attack vendor to be compromised credentials in hacking cases. In other words, this is when people lose their username or password. Compromised credentials accounted for around 20% of attacks, while phishing was responsible for 17%, and cloud misconfiguration led to around 15% of hacks. Though business email compromise was responsible for only 4% of hacking incidents in this report, it also had the highest average cost at around $5.1 million per attack. The second most expensive initial attack vector was phishing, at around $4.56 million.
The “unparliamentary language” prohibited to be used in the parliament includes words like ass, blackguard, coward, git, guttersnipe, hooligan, hypocrite, idiot ignoramus, pipsqueak, rat, slimy, sod, squirt, stoolpigeon, swine, tart, traitor and wart.
The world-famous British playwright Shakespeare added more than 1,700 new words and phrases to the English language.
The term bankrupt is taken from two words: bancus meaning bench in Latin on which bankers used to ply their trade in the marketplace and ruptus meaning broken – once the banker could no longer trade, the bancus would be broken to signify the banker is out of business.
Chat GPT-4 is capable of handling over 25,000 words of text. The free version, in contrast, can only deliver 16,384 via the OpenAI API.