TRIVIA BITS 08 MAY

 

• The word "moose" was originally Algonquin.
• The word "queuing" is the only English word with five consecutive vowels.
• The word "robot" was created by Karel Capek. It came from Czech/Slovak "robotovat," which means to work very hard.
• The word "samba" means "to rub navels together."
• The word "set" has the highest number of separate definitions in the English Language (192 definitions according to the Oxford English Dictionary.)
• The word 'byte' is a contraction of 'by eight.'
• The word 'denim' comes from 'de Nimes', Nimes being the town the fabric was originally produced.
• The word gargoyle comes down from the Old French: gargouille, meaning throat or gullet. This is also the origin of the word gargle. The word describes the sound produced as water passes the throat and mixes with air. In early architecture, gargoyles were decorative creatures on the drains of cathedrals.
• 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 word 'pixel' is a contraction of either 'picture cell' or 'picture element.'