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.

@stanfordpines

Just shows you can't believe the Internet!

(although companies did have internet connections much earlier than home users)

January 1, 1983 is considered the official birthday of the Internet. Prior to this, the various computer networks did not have a standard way to communicate with each other. A new communications protocol was established called Transfer Control Protocol/Internetwork Protocol (TCP/IP).

That’s the internet. Not the World Wide Web. Your average person in their home couldn’t access the internet.

If you stretch out your arms sideways and measure them from middle fingertip to middle fingertip, it should be the same measurement as your height.

Unless you are an orang utan or a T rex.

[quote TwoLeftSocksWithHoles]@triflepudding

The Internet started in the mid-eighties...

...so it must be true! [/quote]
You are the misinformation devil of this thread 😈😈😈😂

[quote FreezerBird]@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.[/quote]
There may be a grain of truth lost in this then, as the richer upper classes might have had to pay the executioner - and pay more for a swift death. The poor would have to do the hemp fandango.

@BendyLikeBeckham

If you stretch out your arms sideways and measure them from middle fingertip to middle fingertip, it should be the same measurement as your height.

Unless you are an orang utan or a T rex.

Or my DH.

I work in M&S food hall & our own brand crisps don’t expire on a Saturday. We had a customer a few years ago literally freaking out about it.

"Talking of fields and old names, Anglo Saxon for field was 'feld' so totally different from the Scandanavian for field (unsurprisingly). Sheffield was Escafeld at the time of the Domesday Book. Esca means body/carrion/a carcass so Sheffield is basically a body field. Nice."

Ooh. Interesting. Today, South Africans call a wild/ uncultivated piece of land 'the veld' (pronounced felt) - presumably from the Dutch settlers.

@BendyLikeBeckham

If you stretch out your arms sideways and measure them from middle fingertip to middle fingertip, it should be the same measurement as your height.

Unless you are an orang utan or a T rex.

For many (most?) people this isn't true. While on average a person's span = their height, it's very common for it to either be shorter or longer. Just like many/most women are shorter or taller than the average height for a woman.

It gets referred to as the ape index - a negative ape index means your span is shorter than your height, a positive ape index means your span is longer. I have a negative ape index.

@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 sword in one stroke.

Salvador Dali designed the logo for Chupa Chups lollies - his innovation being to move the name round to the top of the wrapper.

Charles Darwin initially made his name through research into the activities of the earthworm. He returned to these studies, once moving to Downe House, after coming back from his more famous voyages.

The letter thorn makes me feel inexplicably sad.

some of the replies have triggered others

Polar Bears are Black

Everything you see in space is in the past.Light Years is how many years ago you are seeing the objects.

Not only is their more stars in the universe than grains of sand on Earth, there are more potentially habitable planets in our galaxy than there is grains of sand on Earth.
My foot is the same length as my forearm

@Gt345

The country is divided into 6 segments, spreading out from London and all the roads are numbered accordingly. So if you woke up somewhere randomly you could check a road sign and know which segment you're in (eg M5, A5, B52)

There are two roads out of my village, one begins A6 and the other A5 - so I'm not sure this is true?

@BendyLikeBeckham

If you stretch out your arms sideways and measure them from middle fingertip to middle fingertip, it should be the same measurement as your height.

Unless you are an orang utan or a T rex.

Or that swimmer guy, Michael Phelps.

Apparently the road is given its number according to where it starts, but can then pass through multiple other zones.

I posted this on here before when I first discovered it, and there were a couple of posters who enjoyed it as much as me, so hopefully some more posters will!

It is often said there is no English equivalent to schadenfreude, but it’s not true.

It’s ‘epicaricacy’

I think it fell out of common use many moons ago, I think it’s due a comeback!

Latin didn't have a letter j. Julius Caesar was really Iulius.

The distance between your elbow and your wrist is equivalent to your foot size.

@ReceptacleForTheRespectable

Give or take. It's supposed to be a rough equivalent for most people. Obviously not perfectly accurate, especially as our height varies depending on whether you measure it in the morning or evening, as you get shorter as the day progresses because your spine elongates while your are supine at night, and your discs compress throughout the day with gravity.

Another interesting fact there!!

I like the ape index idea.

@MustardMitt Michael Phelps, as we all know, is not on the ape index. Because he is part sealion. Fact.

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.

In the 1960s former PM Harold Wilson had informal discussions with the US President about the UK becoming a US State.(because President de Gaulle had veteod the UK joining the Common Market).

Just think if that had happened we could have had a vote for or against Trump! 🍊

@VienneseWhirligig

The distance between your elbow and your wrist is equivalent to your foot size.

It's really not.

@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.

I was first told the spiders thing in the 80s, so I think it predates widespread internet use. It could well have been made up though..... I doubt anyone has actually done the research on sleep-spider-eating?

@clockstopper it is for me. It's inner elbow to inner wrist that's should be about the same length at the sole of your foot from heel to longest toe. Try it if you're flexible enough!