ACCEDED,
CABBAGE, BAGGAGE, DEFACED, EFFACED, and FEEDBAG are seven-letter words
which can
be played on a musical instrument. CABBAGED is an eight-letter one.
ADCOMSUBORDCOMPHIBSPAC is the
longest acronym in the 1965 edition of the Acronyms, Initialisms, and
Abbreviations Dictionary. It is a Navy term standing for Administrative
Command, Amphibious Forces, Pacific Fleet Subordinate Command
[Dickson]. Another acronym, PUMCODOXPURSACOMLOPAR, stands for
"pulse-modulated coherent Doppler-effect X-band pulse-repetition
synthetic-array pulse compression lobe planar array"
AEGILOPS
(alternate spelling of egilops, an ulcer in a part of the eye) is
apparently the
longest word in W2 which consists of letters in alphabetical order.
This
word is not in W3. CHILLLOSS (the opposite of a heatloss) has its
letters
in alphabetical order, although this word may not be in any dictionary
[Word Ways]. The title of the film EFIK MOVY was written
abcdEFghIjKlMnOpqrstuVwxYz
to show the alphabetical-order property. BEEFILY and BILLOWY are the
longest
such words in OSPD2+.
Six-letter words with their
letters in alphabetical order include: ABBESS, ABHORS, ACCENT, ACCEPT,
ACCESS,
ACCOST, ADDERS, AFFLUX, ALMOST, BEGINS, BELLOW, BIJOUX, BIOPSY, CHILLY,
CHIMPS, CHINTZ, CHIPPY, CHITTY, CHIVVY, CHOOSY, CHOPPY, EFFLUX, EFFORT,
FLOORS, FLOPPY, FLOSSY, GHOSTY, GLOSSY, and KNOTTY
Mark D.
Lew points out that BEVY not only has its letters in alphabetical order
but
is also symmetrical in its distribution over the alphabet (that is, B
and
Y are equidistant from the center; likewise E and V). BY and LO also
meet
this description.
ASTHMA and ISTHMI (alternate
plural of isthmus) are perhaps the only six-letter words that begin and
end with a vowel and have no other vowels between.
AGUE/VAGUE
is
a
two-syllable
word
which
becomes a one-syllable word by adding a
letter or letters. Other examples: AGUE/PLAGUE, RUGGED/SHRUGGED,
AGED/RAGED, AGED/STAGED.
Some common words which change
from one to three syllables upon the addition of just one letter are:
ARE/AREA, CAME/CAMEO, CRIME/CRIMEA, GAPE/AGAPE, HOSE/HOSEA, JUDE/JUDEA,
LIEN/ALIEN, OLE/OLEO, RODE/RODEO, ROME/ROMEO, and SMILE/SIMILE. There
are numerous
other examples involving more obscure words.
Some words which change from one
to two syllables when letters are removed are: SOURCE/SOUR, BOAT/BOA,
HAVE/AVE, CAVE/AVE (etc.), WHOLE/OLE, SOLE/OLE (etc.)
ANHUNGRY
is one answer to the question, "What's the other word besides 'angry'
and
'hungry' that ends in 'gry'?" This is the most frequently asked
question
of the editors of Merriam-Webster. Actually, "angry" and "hungry" are
the
only two words in common use ending in -gry, but quite a few obsolete
or
obscure words can be found in unabridged dictionaries. Among them are
ANHUNGRY,
used by Shakespeare, and AGGRY BEAD, both of which are in W3. The only
-GRY
words in RHUD2 are ANGRY, HUNGRY, HALF-ANGRY, OVERANGRY, and UNANGRY.
Chambers
has AGGRY (an adjective describing certain ancient West African beads)
and
AHUNGRY (oppressed with hunger). OSPD has PUGGRY (a variant form of the
more usual PUGGAREE, a scarf wrapped around a sun helmet). The OED has
angry,
an-hungry, begry, conyngry, gry, higry pigry, hungry, iggry, meagry,
menagry,
nangry, podagry, skugry, unangry.
[An alternate solution this
question is the word "language." The person actually says, "Think of
words ending in -gry. Hungry and angry are 2 of them. There are three
words in the english language. What is the third? You use it everyday.
If you paid attention we have already told you the answer." More on the
-gry question can be found at
http://www.quinion.com/words/articles/gry.htm and at
http://www.tempe.gov/library/netsites/gry.htm.]
Beijing has three dotted
letters in a row (in lower case). Other words with multiple dotted
letters are
remijia, bogijiab, pirijiri, kharijite (which are all in W2), gaijin
(in
OSPD3), Fiji, Hajji, hijinks, Ujiji (where Stanley found Livingstone in
1871), Ajijic and Pijijiapan (cities in Mexico) jinjili,
ijijimòò
(Nauruan for the adjective "lean," and Nauruan is a palindrome!),
Shijiazhuang
(Chinese city).
Niijima and Iijima are Japanese
last names; Minoru Niijima is the artist who drew the cover graphic for
Edward R. Tufte's book The Visual Display of Quantitative Information
In Dutch, there are jij (you),
pijjekker (pea-jacket), schrooiijzer (upstanding cutting iron for bars,
rods), Sjiiet (follower of the Shia), snijijzer (cutting iron),
uitdijing (expansion), and zijig (silky)
In Lithuanian, jiji is an archaic
Lithuanian form of "him" consisting exclusively of dotted letters, and
kraujijimas
is archaic for "staining with blood"
In Swahili, jiji means "city" and
kijiji means a small city or village .
A property development company in
the
Canadian territory of Nunavut is the Katujjijiit Development
Corporation, with six consecutive dotted letters
The
earliest known use of CATENARY in English is by President Thomas
Jefferson. The
earliest known use of MILEAGE is by Benjamin Franklin.
CATERCORNER
has
eight
spellings
in
W3:
catercorner, cater-cornered, catacorner,
cata-cornered, catty-corner, catty-cornered, kitty-corner, and
kitty-cornered. Another
dictionary has cater-corner.
In the
translations of Hebrew to English there are 16 spellings
for HANUKKAH (in alphabetical order): Channuka, Channukah, Chanuka,
Chanukah, Chanuko, Hannuka, Hannukah, Hanuka, Hanukah, Hanukkah,
Kanukkah, Khannuka, Khannukah, Khanuka, Khanukah, and Khanukkah.
The name Muammar Khadafi has over
30
variants according to the Library of Congress.
The only countries in the world
with one syllable in their names are CHAD, FRANCE, GREECE, and SPAIN
CHINCHERINCHEE, which the OED2
describes as a common variant of chinkerinchee, has one letter
occurring once, two letters occurring twice, and three letters
occurring three times.
Among words consisting only of
Roman numeral letters, the "highest scoring" Roman numeral words in
English (e.g. MerCy = 1100) are MIMIC (2,102) and IMMIX (2012).
If U is
allowed in Roman numeral words, there are ILLUVIUM, DILUVIUM (a coarse
glacial
deposit), MILLILUX (1/1000th of a lux), ILLICIUM (a genus of evergreen
trees), and CULICID (mosquito family).
CONSERVATIONALISTS/CONVERSATIONALISTS
(18
letters)
is
the
longest
non-scientific transposal (words which are
anagrams of each other), according to Guinness. Another transposal is
INTERNATIONALISM/INTERLAMINATIONS (16 letters).
The longest "well-mixed"
transposals (no more than three consecutive letters in common) are
BASIPARACHROMATIN/MARSIPOBRANCHIATA (17 letters) and
THERMONASTICALLY/HEMATOCRYSTALLIN (16 letters).
The longest three-way well-mixed
transposal is INTERROGATIVES/REINVESTIGATOR/TERGIVERSATION (14 letters).
The longest "perfectly mixed"
transposals (no consecutive letter combinations) are
NITROMAGNESITE/REGIMENTATIONS
and ROTUNDIFOLIATE/TITANOFLUORIDE (both 14 letters)
CWM (a glacial hollow on a
hillside) has the rare W as a vowel, as does CRWTH (a type of stringed
instrument). Both words are in MWCD10. They are pronounced "koom" and
"krooth" (rhyming with room and truth). Other such words, not in
MWCD10, are TWP (stupid), AWDL (an ode written in the strict
alliterative meters), and LLWCHWR (a
city-district in Wales). These words are of Welsh origin. The OED
includes
numerous archaic spellings in which W or V is a vowel.
DABCHICK
(a small bird) is among the very few words that contain ABC. Some
others:
ABCOULOMB, ABCHALAZAL, ABCAREE, CRABCAKE, DRABCLOTH. Allowing
intervening
punctuation, there is SAB-CAT (a saboteur) in W2 and W3 [Susan Thorpe
in
WordsWorth]. Proper nouns include BABCOCK, ABCOUDE (city in the
Netherlands),
and ZABCIKVILLE (city in Texas). There are also ABCHASICA, ABCHASICUM,
and ABCHASICUS, all three of which are botanical names for Paeonia
Plants
found in the Caucasus
DEEDED, GEGGEE (the victim of a
hoax) and SESTETTES have each of their letters appearing three times.
A list of words that are
formed
only of repetitive identically spelled syllables or syllable groups:
ANGANG-ANGANG (a type of Javanese gong), BERBER, BERIBERI, BULBUL
(Persian songbird), CANCAN, CHA-CHA, COCO, DODO, DUMDUM, GAGA,
GOODY-GOODY, GRIS-GRIS, IHI'IHI, JUJU, LULU, MAHI MAHI, MAU MAU,
MURMUR, MUUMUU, POM-POM, POOH-POOH, SING
SING, SO-SO, TAM-TAM (tuned gong),TARTAR, TOM-TOM, TUK-TUK (3-wheeled
transport), TUTU, KUKUKUKU (the name of a people in eastern New Guinea,
in W3), PIPIPI (a small black Hawaiian bivalve).
Six-letter repeaters: ATLATL,
BEEBEE, BONBON, BOOBOO, BOUBOU, BULBUL, CANCAN, CHICHI, COOCOO, CUSCUS,
DIKDIK,
DUMDUM, FURFUR, GRIGRI, GRUGRU, MOTMOT, MURMUR, MUUMUU, PALPAL, PAWPAW,
POMPOM, SARSAR, TARTAR, TSETSE, TSKTSK, TZATZA, VALVAL, WEEWEE.
Place
names with the same property include: BADEN-BADEN (in Germany), BELLA
BELLA (coastal town in British Columbia, Canada), BORA BORA (an island
in French Polynesia), BUBUBUBU (a stream in the Democratic Republic of
the Congo), FOFO FOFO
(a town in Papua), KIRAKIRA (Solomon Islands), LOMALOMA (Fiji),
NENGONENGO
(Fr. Polynesia), PAGO PAGO (Am. Samoa), PAOPAO (Fr. Polynesia), PUAPUA
(W.
Samoa), PUEPUE (Solomon Islands), PUKAPUKA (Cook Islands), RABA RABA
(Papua
New Guinea), REKAREKA (Fr. Polynesia), SAVUSAVU (Fiji), SOMOSOMO
(Fiji),
WALLA WALLA (U. S.), and WAGGA WAGGA (Australia)
There are many scientific
names
for which the genus and species are the same; these are called
tautonyms.
GOOGOL
is
a 1 followed by 100 zeros. Mathematician Edward Kasner supposedly asked
his nephew Milton Sirotta to suggest a name for the number, and he came
up with this word, which is now found in many dictionaries. The
million,
billion, trillion, quadrillion system skips over this number. A
googolplex
is 1 followed by a googol of zeros.
The three-syllable word
HIDEOUS, with the change of a single consonant, becomes a two-syllable
word with
no vowel sounds in common: HIDEOUT
HIV
VIRUS
is an obvious redundancy, since the "v" stands for "virus." Some other
common redundancies which include an abbreviation are ATM MACHINE, SALT
TALKS,
START TALKS, VIN NUMBER, PIN NUMBER, AC CURRENT, DC CURRENT, ISBN
NUMBER,
DOS OPERATING SYSTEM, ABS BRAKING SYSTEM, and LCD DISPLAY
HONORIFICABILITUDINITATIBUS is
the longest word consisting entirely of alternating vowels and
consonants.
(For information on this word, see the long words section.) Other such
words are ALUMINOSILICATES, CYTOMEGALOVIRUS, DEPOLARIZABILITY,
EPICORACOHUMERALER, HETEROZYGOSISES, HEXOSAMINIDASES,
HYPOVITAMINOSISES, MYELOCYTOMATOSISES
PARAMYXOVIRUSES, PARAROSANILINES, PARASITOLOGICAL, SUPEREROGATORILY,
TENOSYNOVITIDES,
TENOSYNOVITISES, UNIMAGINATIVELY,
VERISIMILITUDES
.
IMMUNOHEMATOLOGIC contains 8
pairs of alternating vowels and consonants.
Some words containing 7 pairs of
alternating vowels and consonants are: ALUMINOSILICATE,
AUTOMANIPULATIVE, DELIBERATIVENESS, GELATINIZABILITY, HYPEROXYGENIZES,
IMAGINATIVENESS, INERADICABILITY, INOPERATIVENESS, MEGALOPOLITANISM,
PHENOMENOLOGICAL, PHOTOPOLYMERIZATION, PRECIPITINOGENIC,
PREFIGURATIVENESS, REMUNERATIVENESS, SEMIMINERALIZED, UNAPOLOGETICALLY,
UNILATERALIZATION, UNILATERALIZES, VERISIMILITUDINOUS.
GORAN
IVANESEVIC (a top tennis player) may be the longest name of a
relatively famous person that alternates consonants and vowels.
UNITED ARAB EMIRATES is the
longest name of a country consisting of alternating vowels and
consonants.
HYPoThAlAmICoHYPoPHYSeAlS is the
longest word that can be spelled using chemical symbols. Other such
words include NONRePReSeNTaTiONAlISmS, BrONCHOEsOPHAgOSCOPIEs,
ThErMoPHOSPHOReSCeNCe,
HYPSIBRaCHYCePHAlISm, HYPErPHOSPHOReSCeNCe, SUPErCoNdUCTiVITiEs,
PARaPrOFeSSiONaLS,
and
SUPErSOPHISTiCAtE
.
HYDROXYZINE (a prescription drug)
is
the only word in RHUD2 and the only word in OED2 containing XYZ.
Allowing scientific names in biology, there is XYZZORS (a nematode
worm) [Stuart
Kidd]. XYZAL (Levocetirizine) is a prescription drug introduced in
England
in 2001.
The most commonly used words
in
spoken English are I, YOU, THE, and A.
The most commonly used words in
written English, according to the 1971 American Heritage Word Frequency
Book are: the, of, and, a, to, in, is, you, that, it, he, for, was, on,
are, as,
with, his, they at, be, this, from, I, have, or, by, one, had, not,
but,
what, all, were, when, we there, can, an, your, which, their, said, if,
do.
The most commonly occurring words
in
Shakespeare's plays and poetry (with frequencies) are: the 29854, and
27554,
I 23357, to 21075, of 18520, a 15523, you 14264, my 12964, that 11955,
in
11842, is 9734, not 8871, with 8269, s 8160, for 8100, it 8080, me
8059, 7357 his, 7228 be, 7120 he. In Shakespeare, 8598 words
(abaissiez, abash, abatements, abates, abbeys, ..., zo, zodiac,
zodiacs, zone, zwaggered)
are used only once.
The most commonly occurring sound
in
spoken English is the sound of a in alone, followed by e as in key, t
as
in top, and d as in dip.
Some
words with horizontal symmetry (they reflect themselves across a
horizontal line) are: BEDECKED, BOOHOOED, CEBID (a type of monkey),
CHECKBOOK, CHOICE, CODEBOOK, COOKBOOK, DECIDED, DIOXIDE, DOBCHICK,
EXCEEDED, HIDE, HOODOOED, ICEBOX,
KEBOBBED, OBOE, OKEECHOBEE.
Some words with vertical symmetry
are
MOM, WOW, OTTO, MAAM, MA'AM, TOOT, AHA, AA, AHA, AIA, AMA, AVA, AWA,
HAH,
HOH, HUH, MAM, MIM, MM, MUM, OHO, OO, OXO, TAT, TIT, TOT, TUT, UTU,
VAV,
WAW.
All of the letters of these words
have
vertical symmetry: AUTOMATA, AUTOTOMY, HIMATIA, HOITY-TOITY, HOMOTAXIA,
MAHATMA, MAHIMAHI, MAMMATI, MAMMOTH, MATAMATA, MOTIVITY,
MOUTH-TO-MOUTH, MYOMATA, MYXOMATA, OUTWAIT, TATOUAY, TAXIWAY, THATAWAY,
TIMOTHY, TOMATO,
TOWAWAY, WITHOUT, YAWATAHAMA (a city in Japan), and YOUTH.
SWIMS has 180-degree
rotational
symmetry. If written in lower-case cursive, chump comes very close to
having
180-degree rotational symmetry.
These words with 6 or more
letters have all letters rotationally symmetrical: NINONS, ONIONS,
SISSOOS, SOZINS, ZOONOSIS, ZOOZOOS.
All of the letters of these words
have both horizontal and vertical symmetry: HI, OH, IO, OHIO, OHO, and
IHI'IHI (rare Hawaiian fern that now exists only in three populations,
two of which are inside volcanoes).
IFF is a
word invented to mean "if and only if." According to MWCD10, it can be
pronounced three ways: "if and only if," like "if," and like "if" but
with a prolonged "F." There are 118 conjunctions in MWCD10; IFF is the
only "new" conjunction, first seen in print in 1955.
The following words have 75%
of
their letters the same: IIWI (a Hawaiian bird), BIBB, FAFF, LALL, LILL,
LOLL, LULL, MUMM, SASS, SESS, SISS, SOSS, TATT, ZIZZ,
ÉÉPÉÉE (a fencing sword), and SUSS ("Suss
out" is British slang for "figure out").
IMPETICOS is an example of a
nonce word (a word which has been found to have been used only once).
The word is spoken by the clown in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night. W2 says
perhaps
it means "impocket."
INTERCHANGEABILITY
contains
the
words
THREE,
EIGHT,
NINE, TEN, THIRTEEN, THIRTY,
THIRTY-NINE, EIGHTY, EIGHTY-NINE, NINETY, and NINETY-EIGHT.
INTESTINES has each of its
letters occurring twice. Some other such words: APPEASES, ARRAIGNING,
BERIBERI,
BILABIAL, CAUCASUS, CHOWCHOW, CONCISIONS, COUSCOUS, ESOPHAGOGRAPHERS,
FROUFROU,
GENSENGS, GREEGREE, GUITGUIT, HAPPENCHANCE, HORSESHOER, HOTSHOTS,
JIPIJAPA,
MAHIMAHI, MESOSOME, MILLIEME, MIMETITE, RAPPAREE, REAPPEAR,
SCINTILLESCENT,
SHAMMASH, SHANGHAIINGS, TEAMMATE, UNSUFFICIENCES, VETITIVE.
The shortest word with six letters appearing at least twice is
METASOMATOSES.
IO (an interjection in Chambers
and one of the moons of Jupiter), AI (the three-toed sloth), EO, OK,
and AA
(rough volcanic rock) seem to be the shortest two-syllable words.
IRAQ is one of the very few words
ending in Q. Obscure words ending in Q are: SHOQ, PONTACQ, INUPIAQ (an
Eskimo people), SUQ, ZAQAZIQ (or ZAGAZIG, a city in Egypt), ZIA-UL-HAQ
(a proper name),
and N'ASTALIQ. Chambers has TALAQ and TZADDIQ (which can also be
spelled
TSADDIQ). OSPD has TRANQ although this word is not in W2 or W3.
KANGIQSUALUJJUAQ
is an Inuit village in Quebec. KUUJJUAQ is a Canadian city. UMIAQ is
apparently a variant spellling of UMIAK, an Eskimo boat, which is in W2
and W3.) SADIQ is a city in India. ABQAIQ is a city in Saudi Arabia.
HH is
found in withhold, bathhouse, beachhead, bushhammer, fishhawk,
fishhook, highhanded, hitchhike, roughhouse, washhouse, watchhouse,
aarrghh, hashhead, roughhew, fleshhood, roughhewn, touchhole,
youthhood, youthhead, sleuthhound, Pochhammer symbol, the German cities
Forchheim and Lauchhammer, Hohhot in eastern
Inner Mongolia, and the Machhu River in India.
JJ is found in AVIJJA, ZU'L-HIJJAH or DHU'L-HIJJAH (the twelfth month
of the Muslim calendar), HAJJ (the Muslim pilgrimage), HAJJI, UJJAIN
(one of the holy cities of India), CRIGLER-NAJJAR SYNDROME, KUUJJUAQ
(Canadian city), and KANGIQSUALUJJUAQ (an Inuit village in Quebec).
QQ appears in HOOQQA (variant of
hookah in the OED), HUQQA (a water pipe for smoking tobacco), RIQQ (an
Egyptian tambourine) SAQQARA (a village in Egypt), ZAQQUM (a tree with
bitter fruit, mentioned in the Koran), ZIQQURAT (an alternate spelling
of zikkurat or
ziggurat used in past editions of Guinness), BURUQQU (town in India),
QQUEA
and QQUERO (place names in Peru)
UU occurs in carduus, continuum, duumvir,
duumviral, duumvirate, equuleus, Equus, ignus fatuus, individuum,
intermenstruum, lituus, menstruum, mutuum, muumuu, obliquus,
praecipuum, residuum, sadalsuud, semicontinuum, Smectymnuus, squush(y),
triduum, vacuum, weltanschauung,
zuurveldt.
UU is very common in Dutch and in
Polynesian place names.
VV. The complete list from the UKACD: civvy, divvy, navvy, savvy,
bovver, chivvy, luvvie, revved, skivvy, spivvy, chivved, civvies,
divvied, divvies, flivver, luvvies, navvied, navvies, revving, savvied,
savvies, shivved,
chivvied, chivvies, chivving, divvying, flivvers, navvying, savvying,
shivving,
skivvies, bovver boy, chivvying, bovver boys, steam-navvy, bovver
boots,
civvy street, improvvisatore. Other words with a double V not in that
dictionary
are bivvy (slang for bivouac) and bivver (a variant of bever). Chambers
has devvel, bevvy, bivvy, and crivvens.
WW occurs in arrowweed, arrowwood,
arrowworm, bowwoman, bowwood, bowwow, cowweed, cowwheat, dewworm,
glowworm, lowwood, mallowwort, meadowwort, pillowwork, plowwise,
plowwoman, plowwright, powwow, powwower, powwowism, rainbowweed,
sawway, sawworker, sawwort, screwwise, screwworm, shawwal, showworm,
showworthy, skewwhiff, skewwise, slowworm, sparrowwort, squawweed,
strawwalker, strawweight, strawworm, swallowwort, tallowweed,
throwwort, viewworthy, whitlowwort, willowware, willowweed,
willowworm, willowwort, windowward, windowwards, windowwise, yawweed,
yellowware,
yellowweed, yellowwood, yellowwort, Cirkewwa (city in Malta), and
Tsawwassen
(city in Canada), Oewwgger (island in Indonesia).
XX does not occur in any words found in ordinary dictionaries. However,
W3 has XX-DISEASE and the OED has WAXXEN (an old form of the verb, to
wax, to increase in size). Proper nouns containing xx include EXXON,
FOXX, MAXXAM, BEXXAR (a therapeutic antibody), and LEXXEL and VIOXX
(new prescription
drugs). ZAXXON was a popular arcade game in the 1980s [Fred Schneider].
According to an article in Time, the name Exxon was chosen partly
because
it meant nothing in any language and the article reported researchers
concluded
that XX occurs in no language. However, the double X is common in the
Maltese
language.
YY occurs in AL FAYYUM, AL-UBAYYID,
AYYUBID, CUBBYYEW, DUBAYY, FAYYUM, GAYYOU, GROZNYY (variant of Grozny),
HAYYAN,
IYYAR (an alternate spelling of Iyar, a month in the Jewish calendar),
JABIR IBN HAYYAN, KHAYYAM, KRYVYY RIH, KRYVYY ROG (a city in Ukraine),
MAYYALI, NABEREZHNYYE CHELNY (an alternate spelling for the name of a
Russian
port), OMAYYAD or UMAYYAD, PIYYUT (a liturgical poem in Judaism),
SAYYID
(a descendant of Muhammad through Hussein), SNARLEYYOW (slang for
"dog";
found in W2), YABLONOVYY (a Russian mountain range), and ZAKIYYA (an
alternate
spelling for a female given name.)
In addition, in the American
Heritage Dictionary on CD-ROM, BODYBUILDER is misspelled as
BODYYBUILDER.
The word "honcho" comes from a
Japanese word meaning "squad leader" and first came into usage in the
English language during the American occupation of Japan following
World War II.
The word "set" has the highest number of
separate definitions in the English Language (192 definitions according
to the Oxford English Dictionary.)
The word "assassination" was invented by Shakespeare.
The word "coach" is derived from the
village of Kocs, Hungary, where coaches were invented and first used.
The word "karate" means "empty hand."
The word "samba" means "to rub navels
together."
The word gargoyle comes down from the Old French: gargouille, meaning
throat or gullet. This is also the origin of the word gargle. The word
describes the sound produced as water passes the throat and mixes with
air. In early architecture, gargoyles were decorative creatures on the
drains of cathedrals.
The word 'news' did not come about because
it was the plural of 'new.' It came from the first letters of the words
North, East, West and South. This was because information was being
gathered
from all different directions.
The word quisling comes from the name of Major Vidkun Quisling, a
Norwegian who collaborated with the Germans during their occupation of
Norway. The word now means "traitor."
The world's largest alphabet is Cambodian,
with 74 letters.
The world's most widely spoken language is the Mandarin dialect of
Chinese, with 500 million speakers.
"Aroma
therapy" is a term coined by French chemist Renéé Maurice
Gattefosséé in the 1920's to describe the practice of
using essential oils taken from plants, flowers roots, seeds, etc., in
healing.
"Kemo Sabe" means "soggy
shrub"
in Navajo.
"Long in
the tooth," meaning "old," was originally used to describe horses. As
horses age, their gums recede, giving the impression that their teeth
are growing. The longer the teeth look, the older the horse.
"Ough" can be pronounced in
eight different ways. The following sentence contains them all: "A
rough-coated, dough-faced ploughman strode through the streets of
Scarborough, coughing and hiccoughing thoughtfully.
"Rhythms"
is
the
longest
English
word
without
vowels.
"Second string," meaning
"replacement or backup," comes from the middle ages. An archer always
carried a second string in case the one on his bow broke.
No word in
the English language rhymes with month, orange, silver, and purple.
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