Did you know ?
The phrase "raining cats and dogs" originated in 17th Century England. During heavy downpours of rain, many of these poor animals unfortunately drowned and their bodies would be seen floating in the rain torrents that raced through the streets.
The situation gave the appearance that it had literally rained "cats and dogs" and led to the current expression.
The phrase "sleep tight" originated when mattresses were set upon ropes woven through the bed frame. To remedy sagging ropes, one would use a bed key to tighten the rope.
The "O" when used as a prefix in Irish surnames means "descendant of"
The symbol on the "pound" key (#) is called an octothorpe.
"Rhythms" is the longest English word without vowels.
The two lines that connect your top lip to the bottom of your nose are known as the philtrum.
The word "set" has the highest number of separate definitions in the English Language (192 definitions according to the Oxford English Dictionary.)
The word "karate" means "empty hand".
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.
The world's largest alphabet is Cambodian, with 74 letters.
The world's most widely spoken language is the Mandarin dialect of Chinese, with 500 million speakers.
The ZIP in Zip-code stands for "Zoning Improvement Plan".
