Writing Blog Number 2

20240420 Language Triva

Language Trivia

Something different today!

As many who have read my Word Trivia Newsfeed posts over the past few years may be aware, I have collected a huge amount of trivia in my life as a perpetual student and nerd of all things… thingy. (Wow! Good words, Mr Writer!)

So, having gone through a bunch of little Word and wps docs on an external hard drive in order to collate them into one document, I came across some little nuggets of language trivia, and I thought I’d share a dozen of them with my readers.

Both of you.


1.
Long in the tooth, meaning “old,” came from a descriptor used by horse buyers, and dates back to medieval times. See, as horses age, their gums recede, giving the impression that their teeth are growing. Therefore, the longer the teeth look, the older the horse.


2.
The English (allegedly) letter combination “-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.
         rough -> ruff
         dough -> doe
         ploughman -> plowman
         through -> throo
         Scarborough -> Scarbruh
         coughing -> coffing
         hiccoughing -> hiccupping
         thoughtfully -> thortfully


3.
Rhythms is the longest English word without vowels.
Euouae is the longest English word without consonants. It is an acronym from the Latin; a musical term used in religious music is a euoua and more than one (being Latin) is euouae.


4.
A poem written to celebrate a wedding is called an epithalamium.
The plastic things on the end of shoelaces are called aglets.
The two lines that connect your top lip to the bottom of your nose are known as the philtrum.
The white part of your fingernail is called the lunula.


5.
Anthropophagy is the technical, scientific term for cannibalism.


6.
In 1945 a computer at Harvard malfunctioned and Grace Hopper, who was working on the computer, investigated, found a moth in one of the circuits and removed it. Ever since, when something goes wrong with a computer, it is said to have a bug in it.


7.
In English, the word set has the most varied definitions. Oxford gives over 190; here are the most common 30.
Verbs
         i) to put an object in a certain place (they set the vase on the table)
         ii) to have a film or story occur in a certain place and time (Rollerball is set in the future)
         iii) to cause something to be in a particular state (they set the building on fire)
         iv) to cause something to begin (their remarks set me thinking)
         v) to give work or a particular task to someone (I set to work on dusting)
         vi) to decide or establish (the school set a high standard for students)
         vii) to prepare something for future use (I set my PVR to record at 10pm)
         viii) to make certain (the meeting was set for Thursday the 8th)
         ix) (jewellery) to affix (a ruby was set into the gold of the brooch)
         x) (medicine) to put a bone in place to heal (the doctor set my fractured tibia)
         xi) (fashion) to style hair (they set their hair in a Mohawk)
         xii) to make a body part tight (they set their jaw firmly when insulted)
         xiii) to become firm (the jelly set in the dog-shaped mold)
         xiv) to assign (the teacher set 10 pages of homework)
         xv) (music) to provide music for lyrics or a poem (Harrison set the music for Starr’s songs)
         xvi) to go below the horizon (the sun set at 6pm)
Nouns
         xvii) a group of similar things (I had a set of seven race cars)
         xviii) a collection of objects used for a distinct purpose (a chess set or chemistry set); also used in physical exercise (I did a set of 25 pull-ups)
         xix) (maths) a group of objects with distinct, stated characteristics (of the 25 shapes, only 3 made up the set of red squares)
         xx) a group of people who have a similarity (the art set of Sydney is ridiculously pretentious)
         xxi) (performance) where a film or play occurs, including the furniture and props (the movie set was a kitchen)
         xxii) part of a game of a number of sports (a tennis set is generally first to win 6 games)
         xxiii) a part of a musical performance before and/or after a break (the band’s first set last an hour, their second ninety minutes)
         xxiv) a position held by a body part (the set of their jaw told me they were angry)
         xxv) the act of having hair styled (a shampoo and set cost me $150)
         xxvi) a television (the TV set sat in the corner of the room)
Adjective/Adverb
         xxvii) ready (are we all set?)
         xxviii) likely (he is set to become world champion in 2025)
         xxix) never changing (I have to be at work at a set time)
         xxx) (education) required (Beowulf is a set text for English Lit class)


8.
The y in signs reading ye olde… is properly pronounced with a “th” sound, not “y”. The “th” sound does not exist in Latin (which is odd as it exists in Greek), so when ancient Romans occupied (present day) England, they used the Germanic rune “thorn” to represent “th” sounds, adding a new letter to the Latin alphabet. With the advent of the printing press the character from the Roman alphabet which closest resembled thorn was the lower case “y”. The “th” letter combination reappeared in the 14th century, though etymologists are not sure why.


9.
The correct response to the Irish greeting, “Top of the morning to you,” is “and the rest of the day to yourself.”


10.
The last thing to happen is called the ultimate. The next-to-last is called the penultimate, and the second-to-last is called the antepenultimate.


11.
The right side of a boat was called the starboard side due to the fact that the astronavigators used to stand out on the plank (which was on the right side) to get an unobstructed view of the stars. The left side was called the port side because that was the side that you put in on at the port.


12.
The study of insects is called entomology.
The study of word origins is called etymology.
         Don’t get them confused…