I just found out the origins of the slang terms 'Quid' and 'Bucks', do you have any random interesting general knowledge you'd like to share?

[BewareTheBeardedDragon]

Ds asked me today why we call money quid and not bucks like the Americans, so we looked it up.

Quid comes from the Latin Quid Pro Quo, meaning something for something.

Bucks comes from early colonial use of deerskins as barter currency 'buckskins'.

I was pleased ds had asked as I find these things fascinating and pleasing.

I'd love to hear anyone else's fascinating facts.

I didn't know either of those. Very interesting, thank you!

A road crossing for horse riders is called a Pegasus Crossing. That one makes me smile.

Noone ever finds this interesting but I learnt from a Tony Hawks (comedian, not the skater) is that the Bible Belt isn't just called that because of how religious it is, it's also their major leather producer.

@Aroundtheworldin80moves

A road crossing for horse riders is called a Pegasus Crossing. That one makes me smile.

I'll tell equine obsessed dd this one, she'll love it!

I want to know why a cigarette is nick named a fag.

I want to know why Portsmouth's football team is called Pompey.

The crossing for a cyclist and a pedestrian is a toucan crossing, because "two can" cross at the same time.

The makaton for 'can' is also making the shape of a toucan's beak with your fingers

Can’t think of anything but place marking as love this kind of thing

@Boopeedoop

I want to know why a cigarette is nick named a fag.

I would guess it's because fag**t is an old-fashioned word for a bunch of burning sticks (as well as being an offensive word for a gay man, more recently).

@Aroundtheworldin80moves & @BewareTheBeardedDragon
Pegasus crossing buttons are further up the pole for the rider to reach.

I want to know why a cigarette is nick named a fag.

A small bundle of sticks tied together for starting a fire was called a faggot. Cigarettes were called fags as far back as the 19th century and that's the reference to the burning stick.

A faggot is also a meatball, and sometimes used as an insult to call someone old - possibly because of the dried up sticks connotation? Which is unpleasant but I really can’t understand why you have blanked letters out in the word faggot !

OP this is a brilliant idea for a thread I love random facts !

Very interesting about quids and bucks. This is my current favourite fact - the world's longest domestic flight in 2020 waa from Papua New Guinea to France en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/World%27s_longest_domestic_flight

Clicky link

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/World%27s_longest_domestic_flight

Place marking

The term 'capital punishment' is a contraction of 'the man without the capital gets the punishment'.

Basically, if you can't pay for your crime either directly or indirectly through good legal representation , you pay for it with your life.

Really threw me to realise that inequality was actually built into the justice system on purpose.

[quote Barmbraic]Very interesting about quids and bucks. This is my current favourite fact - the world's longest domestic flight in 2020 waa from Papua New Guinea to France en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/World%27s_longest_domestic_flight[/quote]
French Polynesia, not Papua New Guinea 🤦‍♀️ fact was learned during dd's Papua New Guinea project last week.

@IncludeWomenInTheSequel

The term 'capital punishment' is a contraction of 'the man without the capital gets the punishment'.

Basically, if you can't pay for your crime either directly or indirectly through good legal representation , you pay for it with your life.

Really threw me to realise that inequality was actually built into the justice system on purpose.

I'm not sure about that.

I thought capital punishment would originally have meant beheading - capital in this sense being the Latin for to do with the head (capitis). Then widened to mean the death penalty regardless of method.

In contrast to corporal punishment - punishment of the body (corpus).

@IncludeWomenInTheSequel That’s incorrect about capital punishment—it derives from the Latin for head, since capital punishment then often meant beheading.

@Literallynoidea

I want to know why Portsmouth's football team is called Pompey.

There’s no single agreed reason why Portsmouth is called Pompey, but this website has a few suggestions! welcometoportsmouth.co.uk/pompey.html

I went to the prison museum in Ripon ( busmans holiday) and learnt that if someone was sentenced to hang - families would pay people to pull their criminal down by hanging onto their legs to make their passing quicker and suffering less - hence the term hangers on.
Some prison officers say the word nonce for a sex offender is from - not on normal courtyard exercise ( kept separate for their own safety )

@IncludeWomenInTheSequel

The term 'capital punishment' is a contraction of 'the man without the capital gets the punishment'.

Basically, if you can't pay for your crime either directly or indirectly through good legal representation , you pay for it with your life.

Really threw me to realise that inequality was actually built into the justice system on purpose.

That’s not true at all. ‘Capital’ is from the Latin ‘capitalis’, meaning ‘of the head’, referring to one of the more obvious historical methods of execution.

[quote SheeshazAZ09]@IncludeWomenInTheSequel That’s incorrect about capital punishment—it derives from the Latin for head, since capital punishment then often meant beheading.[/quote]
Mmm ok the lawyer who wrote the book I read got it wrong then.

Maybe he was specifically talking about its usage in modern-day America.

[quote SheeshazAZ09]@IncludeWomenInTheSequel That’s incorrect about capital punishment—it derives from the Latin for head, since capital punishment then often meant beheading.[/quote]
Oh but wait surely it still applies then; rich people probably could have paid a fine, poor people would go straight for the chop.

Procrastination comes from the Latin for ‘ for tomorrow’ = pro cras.