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.

Wharf is from warehouse at river front
Pull all the stops out is from playing the organ

Maybe just check your ‘facts’ before posting them, rather than trying to make them true, @IncludeWomenInTheSequel?

The German term for comfort eating is kummerspeck, literally translating to ‘sorrow bacon’, and refers specifically to the extra weight gained during emotional eating. It’s way better than the British term.

Another one for your horse-loving DD, OP. Horses are not allowed to enter Iceland. And if an Icelandic horse leaves Iceland (presumably by boat or train, I don't think they try to escape by swimming for it), it's not allowed back in.
They also have an extra gait.

@smallandimperfectlyformed

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.

That's funny, I always imagined a long thin belt-like band going across a map highlighting the area 😂

No idea about P*mpey but this is why their fans are called skates....

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.urbandictionary.com/define.php%3fterm=Pompey%2520skate&amp=true

@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've read the following 'The term stems from the Latin word capitalis meaning “regarding the head,” and originally referred to a beheading.'

@IncludeWomenInTheSequel

Oh but wait surely it still applies then; rich people probably could have paid a fine, poor people would go straight for the chop.

It is a phrase that's used to highlight the fact that poor people are indeed more likely to be executed in the US than rich ones, BUT it is nothing to do with the origin of the term 'capital punishment'.

And 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.

@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.

This is interesting and worrisome

Oops
Just reading rest of thread
So it’s not true?

In Italy during the middle ages Catholic popes and bishops, not having any (legitimate) sons of their own, would often promote their nephews to important positions, such as cardinal, often as a means to establish or continue a papal dynasty. The Latin for nephew is nepotem, and this is where the term nepotism has its origins.

[quote DanFmDorking]**@Aroundtheworldin80moves* & @BewareTheBeardedDragon*
Pegasus crossing buttons are further up the pole for the rider to reach.[/quote]
Amazing!!!

This little creature, the dassie, is a close relative of the African elephant

@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.

@NeonK

Another one for your horse-loving DD, OP. Horses are not allowed to enter Iceland. And if an Icelandic horse leaves Iceland (presumably by boat or train, I don't think they try to escape by swimming for it), it's not allowed back in. They also have an extra gait.

But why?!?

@SuperHighway

In Italy during the middle ages Catholic popes and bishops, not having any (legitimate) sons of their own, would often promote their nephews to important positions, such as cardinal, often as a means to establish or continue a papal dynasty. The Latin for nephew is nepotem, and this is where the term nepotism has its origins.

Love this one!!!

@VienneseWhirligig whaaaaaaaaa?!? Mind blown (and - how cute 🥰)

I always liked that “daylight robbery” was from the times when window tax existed. The more windows you had the more you paid.

@Boopeedoop fags were cheaply made cigarettes from the left overs of cigars probably mixed with other ingredients, named from the fag-ends which were the scraps from textile manufacturing and the workers adopted the name .

@Boopeedoop it seems that fag - originally meaning the smoked end of a cigarette - may have come from an old English term for the loose end of fabric at the end of a roll of cloth which was called a fag-end, which was then contracted to fag - for a cigarette.

Or it might be the faggot of sticks for burning as per other posters suggestions.

Cross post!

The word Girl came from a german word and originally just meant child.

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.

I recently learned that the mild insult 'berk' was originally from rhyming slang for Berkshire hunt. Not such a mild insult after all!

This is a great thread and quid/ bucks is cool, as is the one about 'hangers on'.

I went to a castle on holiday last year that had some great facts on the display boards - the one I remember being that a funeral 'wake' is so called because the body would be laid out for a while before being buried, in case it woke up (something that apparently happened from time to time).

The dazzlingly blue wings of the Morpho butterfly are actually colourless; they are covered in glass-like scales that refract light making them appear blue. Similar for polar bear fur - it is transparent but fully refracts light and so appears white.