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Today's Paper | April 28, 2024

Published 04 Aug, 2012 03:14am

Facts about languages

•    The word ‘toy’ comes from an old English word that means ‘tool’.

•    The sentence ‘the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog’ uses every letter in the English language.

•    The word comet comes from the Greek word kometes meaning long hair and referring to the tail.

•    The fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of the mouth is called Arachibutyrophobia.

•    The abbreviation Xmas for the word Christmas is of Greek origin. Since the word for Christ in the Greek language is Xristos, which starts with the letter X, they started putting the X in place of Christ and came up with the short form for the word Christmas.

•    In a day, kids that are between the ages of two to eight years  in the US spend 28 minutes of their time colouring.

•    Crayola is a French word that means ‘oily chalk’.

•    The word ‘diamond’ comes from the Greek word adamas, which means ‘unconquerable’.

•    The word ‘checkmate’ in chess comes from the Persian phrase ‘Shah-Mat’, which means the king is dead.

•    The word Spain means ‘the land of rabbits’.

•    The word ‘tulip’ comes from the Turkish word for ‘turban’.

•    The letter J does not appear anywhere on the periodic table of the elements.— Compiled by The Surfer

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