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Monday, May 27, 2013

Did you Know About English?




Did you know that...?


1.  The word "set" has more definitions than any other word in the English language. ( It has 192 definitions according to Oxford English Dictionary).


2.  The word "queue" is the only word in the English language that is still pronounced the same way when the last four letters are removed.


3.  There is a word in the English language with only one vowel, which occurs 6 times: Indivisibility.


4.  You would have to count to one thousand to use the letter "A" in the English language to spell a whole number.


5.  There are only four words in the English language which end in "-dous": tremendous, horrendous, stupendous, and hazardous.


6.  The only three words in the English language to beging with DW are Dwarf, Dwell, and Dwindle.


7.  "Underground" is the only word in the English language that begins and ends with the letters "und".


8.  "Dreamt" is the only English word that ends in the letters "mt".


9.  No word in the English language rhymes with "month", "orange", "silver" or "purple"!



Did you know that...?


10. 
The sentence "the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog" uses every letter in the English language.


11.  "Quisling" is the only word in the English language to start with "quis." Who is Quisling you ask?  He was a Nazi collaborator who ran occupied Norway in World War II. If you call a Norwegian a "quisling," be prepared to see these usually docile people kick your butt!


12.  The only 15-letter word that can be spelled without repeating a letter is "uncopyrightable".


13.  The oldest word in the English language is "town".


14.  The second longest word in the English language is "antidisestablishmenterianism".


15.  There is a seven-letter word 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.


16.  "Bookkeeper" and "bookkeeping" are the only words in the English language with 3 consecutive double letters.

Did you know that...?


17.  Seoul, the South Korean capital, just means "the capital" in the Korean language.


18.  "Strengths" is the longest word in the English language with just one vowel.


19.  "Stewardesses" is the longest word that is typed with only the left hand.


20.  One of the longest English words that can be typed using the top row of a typewriter (allowing multiple uses of letters) is 'typewriter.'


21.  "Swahili" is a combination of African tribal languages, Arabic and Portuguese.


22.  There are 6 words in the English language with the letter combination "uu." Muumuu, vacuum, continuum, duumvirate, duumvir, and residuum.


23. The word "honcho" comes from a Japanese word meaning "squad leader" and first came into usage in the English language during the American occupation of Japan following World War II.


24.  The word "queueing" is the only English word with 5 consecutive vowels!


25.  "Canada" is an Indian word meaning "Big Village".


26.  The word "pixel" is a contraction of either "picture cell" or "picture element" .


Did you know that...?


27.  When two words are combined to form a single word (e.g., motor + hotel = motel, breakfast + lunch = brunch) the new word is called a "portmanteau".


28.  The words 'sacrilegious' and 'religion' do not share the same etymological root.


29.  The word rodent comes from the Latin word `rodere' meaning to gnaw.


30.  The Sanskrit word for "war" means "desire for more cows."


31.  The Old English word for "sneeze" is "fneosan."

32.  "Feedback" is the shortest word in English that contains the letters A, B, C, D, E and F.


33.  "Q" is the only letter that does not appear in any of the names of the 50 United States.


34. There is no synonym for "thesaurus".


34.  The word 'news' did not come about because it was the plural of 'new.' It came from the first
       letters of the words North, East, West and South. This was because information was being gathered from all different directions.


35.  "Ough" can be pronounced in eight different ways. The following sentence contains them all: "A rough-coated, dough-faced ploughman strode through the streets of Scarborough, coughing and hiccoughing thoughtfully.


Did you know that...?


36.  A group of dolphins/fish/whales is called a school.

37. A group of frogs/ants/penguins/rabbits is called an army or colony.

38.  A group of rhinos is called a crash.

39. A group of kangaroos is called a mob.

40.  A group of geese is called a gaggle.

41.  A group of ravens/crows is called a murder.

42.  A group of crocodiles is called bask.

43. A group of flies is called a business!

44.  A group of locusts is called a plague!

45.  A group of larks is called an exaltation.

46.  A group of owls is called a parliament.

47. A group of people is called a crowd.

48. A group of sheep is called a flock.

49.  A group of pigs/elephants/buffalo/cattle (cows)/oxen/goats is called a
herd.

50. A group of lions is called a pride.

51. A group of monkeys/foxes/donkeys is called a troop.

52.  A group of tigers is called a streak.

53. A group of cats is called a clutter.

54.  A group of dogs/wolves is called a pack.

55.  A group of zebra is called a cohort.

56.  A group of ducks is called a raft.

57.  A group of bears is called a sleuth/sloth.

58.  A group of bats is called a cloud.

59.  A group of bees is called a hive

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