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.

@sashh

The spiders one was, apparently, made up by two peaple to see how quickly they could get something to spread across the Internet. Although I suppose that could be made up too!

In a similar vein a couple of linguists made up the, "Eskimos have 100 words for snow"

And a challenge to introduce a new word to English in a day resulted in the word made up word, "quiz" being chalked on walls all over Dublin.

When was quiz supposed to have been introduced in this way? It's been in use for 100s of years. Upper class men used to wear quizzing glasses.

Im not flexible enough to try this but my daughter is taller than i am but her feet are still same size so right away 8m thinking feet length not connected to your height.

Despite being a heffalump I am flexible enough to try the foot/arm thing and I can confirm my foot is about an inch shorter than my forearm. My feet are size 6 which is the average size for women (I believe) and I am certainly not blessed with long, willowy arms!

The length of your femur is equivalent to approximately one quarter of your height.

The fag one takes me back to third year juniors and learning 'Pack Up Your Troubles' with our guitar-playing old hippy class teacher. One line was 'While you've a lucifer to light your fag...'. Not sure what that proves or disproves.

German has both Feld and Acker - the latter's for crops, the former can be used that way but also to mean a battlefield or sports pitch. 'Ackern' is also a German verb meaning to work hard.

On a trip to a local mill the guide explained to us that mill workers wore heavy soled clogs to work.
To 'pop' something was to pawn it. You would pawn anything if you were skint but never your clogs because it would stop you from working. You would only find clogs in the pawn shop if someone was dead. Hence pop your clogs.

French mill workers clogs were called sabots. They threw the clogs into the machinery to stop production when unhappy with their owners. They were saboteurs/ sabotaged the machines.

I hope that he was telling me the truth now.

The foot thing is true for me too, and for DS.

@Baublebox

On a trip to a local mill the guide explained to us that mill workers wore heavy soled clogs to work. To 'pop' something was to pawn it. You would pawn anything if you were skint but never your clogs because it would stop you from working. You would only find clogs in the pawn shop if someone was dead. Hence pop your clogs.

French mill workers clogs were called sabots. They threw the clogs into the machinery to stop production when unhappy with their owners. They were saboteurs/ sabotaged the machines.

I think that ties in with the theory that Pop Goes The Weasel is about pawning something to fund drinking in the pub?

Love the pop ones!

Could the elbows on the table /sailors thing be about hanging tables on ships? Suspended tables meant /mean that the table remains level and food doesn’t spill, but they must be a devil to eat from unless you steady them with your elbows?

@Gastropod that is interesting, what seems l8ke repition of meaning was essential. I wonder at what point anglo saxons and normans all understood both.

Ah yes! I love these.

Response to @SabrinaThwaite

Lots of forensic anthropology stuff is really interesting - how you can interpret age, sex, race, height, disease, injuries etc from skeletons.

@EBearhug

historically I suspect that beheading was actually the punishment for the richer, upper classes. The poor were more likely to be hanged I'd imagine.

Yes. Wasn't there a thing about the axe for Anne Boleyn being especially sharp as a kindness, to ensure it was quick? I might have made that up, but I can't think why I would have.

Anne Boleyn was beheaded by a french swordsman so that it would be quicker/ cleaner etc.