Showing posts with label origins.. Show all posts
Showing posts with label origins.. Show all posts

Friday, February 21, 2014

Words and their origins.

email from jks weerasekara
Knowledge is amusing

[1] FORTNIGHT comes from 'Fourteen Nights' (Two Weeks).

[2] POP MUSIC is 'Popular Music' shortened.

[3] MOPED is the short term for 'Motorized Pedalling'.

[4] BUS is the short term for 'Omnibus' that means everybody.

[5] DRAWING ROOM was actually a 'withdrawing room' where people
withdrew after Dinner. Later the prefix 'with' was dropped...

[8] QUEUE comes from 'Queen's Quest'. Long back a long row of people
as waiting to see the Queen. Someone made the comment Queen's Quest...

[9] JOURNAL is a diary that tells about 'Journey for a day' during
each Day's business.

[10] TIPS come from 'To Insure Prompt Service'. In olden days to get
Prompt service from servants in an inn, travellers used to drop coins
in a Box on which was written 'To Insure Prompt Service'. This gave
rise to the custom of Tips.

[11] JEEP is a vehicle with unique Gear system. It was invented during
World War II (1939-1945). It was named 'General Purpose Vehicle
(GP)'.GP was changed into JEEP later.

[20] Wearing HEADPHONES for just an hour will increase the bacteria in
your ear by 700 times.

[22] The "sixth sick sheik's sixth sheep's sick" is said to be the
toughest tongue twister in the English language.

[26] A SNAIL can sleep for three years.

[27] All POLAR BEARS are left handed.

[28] BUTTERFLIES taste with their feet.

[29] ELEPHANTS are the only animals that can't jump.

[32] The human HEART creates enough pressure when it pumps out to the
body to squirt blood 30 feet.