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.

@TwoLeftSocksWithHoles

There are some rather dubious origins on here...

@IncludeWomenInTheSequel - capital punishment, I think this ones 'been done death'!

@smallandimperfectlyformed - bible belt (well he is a comedian after all)

@nevernotagain - elbows on tables it would impossible to eat from a plate with your elbows holding it unless the plate was about two feet wide! Try it (I did!)

@dodoapplet - different words for animal and cooked meat what about 'lamb'?

...but I like the idea of creating a plausible background, that may not be true, for a fact or slang term, so here's mine...

Never eat a Polar Bear's Liver - it can contain an extremely high concentration of vitamin A, which if eaten can cause poisoning. This can result in vomiting, bone damage and potentially death. I think this goes a long way to explaining why you don't find polar bear liver on the cold counter at supermarkets.

Spiders - we swallow an average of eight spiders in our sleep every year.

Venereal Disease - was originally believed to have been caused by cabinet makers who breathed in the spores from wood veneers while making furniture. These workers often came to England from France and so were separated from their wives and families and sought solace with dubious ladies.

"Dubious origins", oh, the irony

Venereal = Middle English venerealle, from the Latin Venereus "of Venus, of or relating to sexual desire or sexual activity". Nothing to do with cabinet makers, unless it's something about those dexterous fingers

And the one about spiders is VERY very old (and wrong).

@CigarsofthePharoahs

Blood is thicker than water. We have misunderstood this phrase. It used to be "The blood of the battlefield is thicker than the water of the womb" which means that loyal friends are worth more than family. Sometimes it was said "Blood is thicker than milk" essentially the same thing.

Pretty sure this one is made up. I know the wiki page has had this added but I’m sure I read somewhere that instances of this were not very old at all.

I'm slowly catching up, after a hard day of home schooling... and loving all of these!

The Catatumbo river in Venezuela has had a lightning storm raging for over 400 years
That is properly amazing - like something from another planet or a 19th century adventure novel

@Ludo19

Some time ago farmers who sold pigs would bring them to the market wrapped up in a bag. Unscrupulous ones would replace the pig with a cat and if someone would accidentally let the cat out, their fraud would be uncovered.

Hence let the cat out of the bag.....allegedly

That is also the source of buying a ‘pig in a poke’ to mean buying something without checking what it is.

So if you boycott someone....

It is to do with Charles Boycott www.thefactsite.com/boycott-word-origins/ who was asked to evict tenants from their land in Ireland back in 1880 . It was decided to ostracise him in the community and to isolate him. The boycott of Boycott seemed to work.

I love the derivation of words.

@pistachioglace wharf comes from the Old English warft, meaning '(ship)yard'.

@TwoLeftSocksWithHoles venereal disease is so called because it's a disease of Venus (veneris = 'of Venus' in Latin) - Venus obviously the goddess of love and therefore diseases transmitted by shagging.

Here are mine which I learned this week. You’ll like these:

A woman complained to her husband that her iron wasn’t very good this was back when irons were square. She complained that the shape wasn’t very good for pleats and that it didn’t get hot enough. He then went on to invent the shape of iron that we now know. He started a company to sell these new irons. So everyone knew the benefits of the irons he called the company Hot Point.

A man started a very successful ladies wear shop but it didn’t work well with the name of H L Smith’s ladies wear (that’s not the real name but I don’t remember). The building the shop was in was very pretty so they decided to name the shop after the variety of roses growing around the door. The variety was Dorothy Perkins.

@JesusInTheCabbageVan

Yes, well I did make the venereal disease one up.

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!

[quote TwoLeftSocksWithHoles]@JesusInTheCabbageVan

Yes, well I did make the venereal disease one up.

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! [/quote]
But why? Why make that up and spoil what could be a fabulous thread?

@Mycatismadeofstringcheese

Does anyone know why we got rid of the letter 'thorn'? It would make so much sense for English to have a letter to represent the 'th' sound.

Printing presses from Europe didn’t have the letter thorn. So for a while British printers substituted the letter y as closest in shape. Which is why you see signs “Ye shoppe” fir the shop, but it would have still been pronounced with a th as in the and not with a y sound.

Fascinating!

@StanfordPines

Here are mine which I learned this week. You’ll like these:

A woman complained to her husband that her iron wasn’t very good this was back when irons were square. She complained that the shape wasn’t very good for pleats and that it didn’t get hot enough. He then went on to invent the shape of iron that we now know. He started a company to sell these new irons. So everyone knew the benefits of the irons he called the company Hot Point.

A man started a very successful ladies wear shop but it didn’t work well with the name of H L Smith’s ladies wear (that’s not the real name but I don’t remember). The building the shop was in was very pretty so they decided to name the shop after the variety of roses growing around the door. The variety was Dorothy Perkins.

Nice, I like those facts a lot!

@MechantGourmet but @TwoLeftSocksWithHoles did preface those ones by saying she was making them up so... it hasn't ruined the thread for me in any case.

AIDS also spreads far more easily when genital ulcers are present and for some reason the sex workers in and around TDRoC were riddled with them.

I suspect the prostitutes had genital herpes.

Also, AIDS in Africa spread quickly along areas near to major roads as lorry drivers used the services of the prostitutes who frequented these areas. The lorry drivers then went home and infected their wives.

And now for something a little less grim: in Haiti, there are descendants of Polish soldiers who Napoleon used to put down the Haitian rebellion.

There are descendants of Dutch settlers still living in Sri Lanka. They are largely seen as an underclass.

Source for the first fact: a friend who was a doctor specialising in AIDS at the World Health Organisation. For the last two: "Lost White Tribes" (I've forgotten the name of the author but I do recall that he is Italian).

[quote BewareTheBeardedDragon]**@MechantGourmet* but @TwoLeftSocksWithHoles* did preface those ones by saying she was making them up so... it hasn't ruined the thread for me in any case. [/quote]
Argh, sorry! You can't expect me to read before posting, surely?

Lobsters have two penises.

@TriflePudding

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 !

A faggot is also a derogatory term for a gay man, as is fag. A fag is also a younger student that has to wait on an older one in college.

Fag end is also butt end.

Here’s a better one though:

Everything you see is in the past. You “see” the thing, your brain processes what you “saw” and then you see it. So everything you see happened in the past. During the process, your brain is making stuff up in the meantime.

Then there’s the colour not existing thing which blows my mind so much I don’t understand or comprehend it....

Sorry @mechantgourmet I won't do it again providing you believe everything else I post like...

17 percent of all motor insurance claims relate to accidents/damage that occur in supermarket carparks. FACT.

If a ship sailed due east from New York harbour the first land it would come to would be Portugal.

You can't strike a match on a jelly.

@PatButchersRightEarring

Lobsters have two penises.

Interesting and revolting in equal measure

[quote TwoLeftSocksWithHoles]@JesusInTheCabbageVan

Yes, well I did make the venereal disease one up.

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! [/quote]
Ah! I did see the line "..but I like the idea of creating a plausible background, that may not be true, for a fact or slang term, so here's mine..." but then the first fact you mentioned was the polar bear liver one, which is true, so I thought you just meant 'Here are my facts' iykwim.

You do realise you're going to have people berating you for the next ten pages

@PatButchersRightEarring

Here’s a better one though:

Everything you see is in the past. You “see” the thing, your brain processes what you “saw” and then you see it. So everything you see happened in the past. During the process, your brain is making stuff up in the meantime.

Then there’s the colour not existing thing which blows my mind so much I don’t understand or comprehend it....

Oh my - I need a lie down after thinking about that!

Aren't the stars we are in the sky 2000 years old? Crazy.

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! hmm

I think it might be! I've just found this:

"The idea that Lisa Holst is the originator of the spider statistic is reported in an article on snopes.com, a website dedicated to clearing up internet rumours and urban legends. As yet, however, it has not been possible to confirm the existence of either Holst or the article she is supposed to have written."