The English language is, quite literally, the greatest language in the world. Great in terms of size - the current edition of theOxford English Dictionary contains 615,000 entries. Great in terms of scope -it's an official language in seventy-nine countriesand territories. And great in terms of, well, greatness -- it's just one fantastic mishmash of borrowings, inventions, corruptions, misinterpretations, misspellings, alterations, words you'll never need, and words you never even knew you'll never need.
Since December 2013,@HaggardHawkshas been trying to prove precisely this by tweeting odd words, word origins and language facts everyday. 1,300 tweets later, it turns six months old this week and so to celebrate, here are 66 random facts from our first semester that hopefully go some way towards showing how great -- and how downright bizarre -- the English language can be.
1. In the 17th century, magpies were nicknamedpie-maggots.
2. The part of a wall between two windows is called theinterfenestration.
3. If you were to write out every number name in full (one, two, three, four...), you wouldn't use a single letter B until you reached one billion.
4. The part of your back that you can't quite reach to scratch is called theacnestis.It's derived from the Greek word for "cheese-grater."
5. Ahecatompedonis a building measuring precisely 100ft 100ft.
6. Agrowleryis a place you like to retire to when you're unwell or in a bad mood. It was coined by Charles Dickens inBleak House(1853).
7. There was no word for the color orange in English until about 450 years ago.
8. The infinity sign, , is called alemniscate.Its name means "decorated with ribbons" in Latin.
9. ADutch feastis one at which the host gets drunk before his hosts do.
10.Schoolmasteris an anagram of "the classroom."
11.To explodeoriginally meant "to jeer a performer off the stage."
12.Funkwas originally a Tudor word for the stale smell of tobacco smoke.
13. In written English, only one letter in every 510 is a Q.
14. The opposite of dj-vu is calledjamais-vu: it describes the odd feeling that something very familiar is actually completely new.
15. Ascissorwas originally a type of Roman gladiator thought to have been armed either with a pair of swords or blades, or with a single dual-bladed dagger.
16.To jirblemeans "to spill a liquid while pouring it because your hands are shaking."
17.Samuel Johnsondefined asockas "something put between the foot and the shoe."
18. In Victorian slang,muffin-walloperswere old unmarried or widowed women who would meet up to gossip over tea and cakes.
19. Scarecrows were once known ashobidy-boobies.
20. The longest English word with its letters in reverse alphabetical order isspoonfeed.
21. Shakespeare used the wordpukinginAs You Like It.
22.Flabellationis the use of a fan to cool something down.
23.Bamboozlederives from a French word,embabouiner,meaning "to make a baboon out of someone."
24. Apercontationis a question that requires more than a straightforward "yes" or "no" answer.
25. The shortest -ology isoology, the scientific study of eggs.
26. As a verb rather than a noun,owlmeans "to act wisely, despite knowing nothing."
27. A shape with 99 sides would be called anenneacontakaienneagon.
28. In the 18th century, aclank-napperwas a thief who specialized in stealing silverware.
29.Noonis derived from the Latin for "ninth,"novem. It originally referred to the ninth hour of the Roman day -- 3pm.
30. 11% of the entire English language is just the letter E.
31.Oysterhoodmeans "reclusiveness," or "an overwhelming desire to stay at home."
32. Apuckfistis someone who braggingly dominates a conversation.
33. The bowl formed by cupping your hands together is called agowpen.
34. Tobattologizemeans "to repeat a word so incessantly in conversation that it loses all meaning and impact."
35. Azoilistis an unfair or unnecessarily harsh critic, or someone who particularly enjoys finding fault in things.
36. In 19th century English, acover-slutwas a long cloak or overcoat worn to hide a person's untidy or dirty clothes underneath.
37.Happyis used three times more often in English thansad.
38.Trinkgeldis money meant only to be spent on drink.
39.Aquabobis an old name for an icicle.
40. In the 16th and 17th century,buttock-mailwas the name of a tax once levied in Scotland on people who had s*x out of wedlock.
41.Witzelsuchtis a rare neurological disorder whose sufferers have an excessive tendency to tell pointless stories or inappropriate jokes and puns.
42. Arepdigitis a number comprised of a series of repeated numbers, like 9,999.
43. In Tudor English, agandermoonerwas a man who flirted with other women while his wife recovered from childbirth.
44. Acumbergroundis an utterly useless person who literally serves no other purpose than to take up space.
45.Sermocinationis the proper name for posing a question and then immediately answering it yourself.
46. The earliest known reference to baseball in English comes from Jane Austen'sNorthanger Abbey(1798).
47.Whipper-tootiesare pointless misgivings or groundless excuses for not trying to do something.
48. Anything described astranspontineis located on the opposite side of a bridge.
49. In the early days of Hollywood, the custard pies thrown in comedy sketches were nicknamedmagoos.
50.Checkbookis the longest horizontally symmetrical word in the English language -- although if proper nouns are included, Florida's Lake Okeechobee is one letter longer.
51. The earliest record of the phrase "do-it-yourself" comes from a 1910 magazine article about students at Boston University being left to teach themselves.
52. Thepaddywhackmentioned in the nursery rhyme "This Old Man" is a Victorian slang word for a severe beating.
53. The Kelvin temperature scale, the forsythia plant, Boeing aircraft and the state of Pennsylvania are all named after people called William.
54.Xenoglossyis the apparent ability to speak a language that you've never actually learned.
55.Mochasare named after a port in Yemen, from where coffee was exported to Europe in the 18th century.
56. In mediaeval Europe, amomentwas precisely 1/40th of an hour, or 90 seconds.
57. Toquomodocunquizemeans "to make money by whatever means possible."
58. Porpoise literally means "pork-fish."
59.Shivvinessis an old Yorkshire word for the uncomfortable feeling of wearing new underwear.
60. The adjectival form ofabracadabraisabracadabrant, used to describe anything that has apparently happened by magic.
61. Straitjackets were originally calledstrait-waistcoats.
62. Aspirin and heroin were both originally trademarks. They lost their trademark status as part of the Treaty of Versailles.
63. Anautologicalword is one that describes itself -- likeshortorunhyphenated.
64. In the 18th century, teachers were nicknamed "haberdashers of pronouns."
65. The burnt or used part of a candlewick is called thesnaste.
66. The expressions "bully pulpit" and "lunatic fringe" were coined by Theodore Roosevelt.
