It appears that nobody knows where the dan in dandruff comes from, but the second syllable probably derives from the Old English hreofla meaning leper. So perhaps back in the mists of time there was a particular flaky chap called Dan. Apropos nothing at all, I feel duty bound to …
There are precisely a million and one little differences between American and British English. I once had to go into hiding after stubbing out a fag butt in San Francisco. Here for the sake of mutual comprehension and edification are two rather strange and wayward usages from that wonderfully odd …
Most of us know the difference between the intimate French tu and the more impersonal (and polite) vous. A similar distinction exists in Arabic between anta (‘you’ singular) and antum (‘you’ plural) – addressing an important person with anta (anti is the feminine version) rather than antum would be considered impolite. In Vietnam there are no fewer than eighteen words for ‘you’, the use …
Parts of the body have long been used to define small distances – the foot in the imperial system of measuring, for example. The Zarma people of Western Africa find the arm much more useful: kambe karis the length of the arm from the elbow to the tip of the …
Ever since Portuguese traders brought tobacco to Asia in the early 16th century, Japan has smoked with gusto. But after a series of tough anti-smoking laws enacted in the mid-1990s, tobacco use plummeted. At the same time, lawsuits alleging secondhand exposure shot up. The strangest charge from this period of …
I have had a request from a fellow in Spain to explain what phrasal verbs and syllepeses are. The phrasal verb is a marvellous thing.In essence it is a verb with a preposition, which when put together will give you a whole new meaning: for example, doing up a house. …
For most of human history, scales used comparison weights; an object was weighed against a counterweight to determine its relative heft. In order to make the calculations consistent, counterweights needed to be uniform and predictable, which is why the ancients relied on grains of wheat or seeds. Seeds from the …
I recently received a lovely note from a lady called Kristy asking about blogging. Flattered as I am, I feel that the best place to start is with probably the best “how to do it ” site on the internet -by a fellow by the name of Jeff Goins. He …
In 1926 Ireland, the Catholic Church was so concerned about saving souls that they established a committee to decide which publications should be deemed as “sordid” and “objectionable” The good fathers decided upon the following titles: Woman`s World Woman`s Realm The Sporting Life Girls Companion Home Companion News of …
While opinions vary about the origin of the word “Tartar,” all agree that 13th-century western Europeans used the term to refer to invading Mongol tribes. The word was actually a derivative of the name the ancient Romans used to refer to Tartarus, the area in the underworld where evil people …
