30 Amazing and little known Facts About Origin of Words | Amazing Facts 4U
- The word “bride” is derived from an old English word meaning “cook”.
- Amazingly Sahara is an Arabic word meaning desert. When we say “Sahara desert”, we are in fact saying desert.
- Fortnight comes from ‘Fourteen Nights’ (2 Weeks).
- Amazingly Drawing Room was actually a ‘withdrawing room’ where people withdrew after Dinner. Later the prefix ‘with’ was dropped.
- The word ‘News’ is actually an acronym standing for the 4 compass points – North, East, West, and South!
- The fact is the word housekeeping was invented by Shakespeare.
- Amazingly Upper and Lower case letters are so named because when print had to be set manually the upper case letters were stored in a case above the case that held the lower case letters.
- The phrase “rule of thumb” is derived from an old English law, which stated that you couldn’t beat your wife with anything wider than your thumb.
- SCUBA is not a word. It is an acronym for Self Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus.
- There is a seven-letter words in the English language that contains ten words without rearranging any of its letters, “therein” — the, there, he, in, rein, her, here, ere, therein, herein.
- The ZIP in “ZIP code” means Zoning Improvement Plan.
- “Canada” is an Indian word meaning “big village”.
- “Fan” is an abbreviation for the word “fanatic.”
- The abbreviation e.g. stands for “Exempli Gratia”, or “For example.”
- The word Karate means “empty hand”.
- The abbreviation for 1 pound lb. comes from the astrological sign Libra meaning balance.
- Amazingly the word constipation comes from a Latin words that means “to crowd together.”
- English word pajamas has Persian origin meaning Pa (leg) and Ramah(garment).
- MAFIA is an acronym Morte Alla Francia Italia Anela or “Death to the French is Italy’s Cry”
- The letter X in Greece is an abbreviation for Christ, hence the term X-mas.
- Spain literally means ‘the land of rabbits.
- The amazing fact is that “Goodbye” came from the Middle English “goodbye”, which is short for “God be with ye”
- Amazingly “Mrs.” is actually an abbreviation for the words “mistress.”
- R.S.V.P. stands for the French phrase “repondez s’il vous plait,” which translates to “please reply.”
- Because breakfast is typically the first meal we eat each day, by doing so we are “breaking” our nightly “fast.” That is how the name originated.
- The amazing fact is that Kennedy means “Ugly Head”! and it is an Irish term.
- Amazingly the term “sideburns” originally comes from the hairstyle worn by Civil War general Ambrose Burnside! We used to call them “burnsides” before it was changed to “sideburns”.
- The ampersand (&) was made by combining the letters ‘e’ and ‘t.’ This is because the word ‘et’ is Latin for “and.”
- Amazingly the name Jesus comes from several incorrect translations of “Yeshua” which appear in the Hebrew Bible.
- The word Lieutenant comes from the French language and combines two other words. The first is “lieu,” which means “in place” as in a position. And the second word is “tenant,” which means “holding” or “holding in position.” Thus, a lieutenant meaning was someone who held a position in absence of his superior officer.
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