facts english

7/27/2019 Facts English

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YPEWRITER is the longest word that can be made using the letters only on one row of

the keyboard.

"Go." is the shortest complete sentence in the English language.

The sentence "the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog" uses every letter in the

English language.

Shakespeare invented the word "assassination" and "bump."

The name of all the continents end with the same letter that they start with.

The word "lethologica" describes the state of not being able to remember the word you

want.

The word racecar and kayak are the same whether they are read left to right or right to

left.

China has more English speakers than the United States.

The longest word in the English language is 1909 letters long and it refers to a distinct

part of DNA.

The longest one-syllable word in the English language is"screeched."

No word in the English language rhymes with month, orange, silver or purple.

"Dreamt" is the only English word that ends in the letters "mt".

There are only four words in the English language which end in "- dous": tremendous,

horrendous, stupendous, and hazardous.

The name for Oz in the "Wizard of Oz" was thought up when the creator, Frank Baum,

looked at his filing cabinet and saw A-N and O-Z, hence "Oz."

All 50 States are listed across the top of the Lincoln Memorial on the back of the $5 bill.

Maine is the only State whose name is just one syllable.


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Los Angeles' full name is "El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora la Reina de los Angeles de

Porciuncula."

"Stewardesses" is the longest word that is typed with only the left hand.

The "sixth sick sheik's sixth sheep's sick" is said to be the toughest tongue twisterin the

English language.

The plastic things on the end of shoelaces are called aglets.

Richard Millhouse Nixon was the first US president whose name contains all the letters

from the word "criminal." The second was William Jefferson Clinton.

The symbol on the "pound" key (#) is called an octothorpe.

The dot over the letter 'i' is called a tittle.

The word "set" has more definitions than any other word in the English language.

Underground and underfund are the only word in the English language that begin and

end with the letters "und."

The longest place-name still in use is

Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateaturipukakapikimaungahoronukupokaiwe-

nuakit natahu, a New Zealand hill.

Donald Duck's middle name is Fauntleroy.

There is a seven-letter word in the English language that contains ten words without

rearranging any of its letters, "therein": the,there, he, in, rein, her, here, ere, therein,

herein.

The letters KGB stand for Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti.

The only 15 letter word that can be spelled without repeating a letter is uncopyrightable.

Facetious and abstemious contain all the vowels in the correct order, as does

arsenious, meaning "containing arsenic."

The word "Checkmate" in chess comes from the Persian phrase "Shah Mat," which

means "the king is dead."


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"a man a plan a canal panama" spelled backwards is still "a man a plan a canal panama"

The most popular first name in the world is Muhammad.

Skepticisms is the longest word that alternates hands when typing.

The fear of vegetables is called Lachanophobia.

In England, in the 1880's, "Pants" was considered a dirty word.

The book Gadsby, written by Ernest Vincent Wright, has 50,110 words in it, none of

them in which contain the letter e.

Canada is an indian word meaning "Big Village".

"The" is the most frequently used word in the English language (used three times in this

sentence alone).

More countries use English as their official language than any other. French is second.

There are six words in the English language with the letter combination "uu." Muumuu,

vacuum, continuum, duumvirate, duumvir and residuum.

A "moment" is actually 90 seconds.

Mrs. was originally an abbreviation of "mistress," but now is not an abbreviation of

anything, except a woman's single lifestyle.

The world's largest alphabet is Cambodian, with 74 letters.

"Rhythms" is the longest English word without vowels.

"Lollipop" is the longest word that can be typed using only the right hand.

The letters H, I, O, and X are the only letters that look the same if you flip them upsidedown or view them from behind.

"Queueing" is the only word with five consecutive vowels.

The only city in the United States whose name is spelled using only vowels is Aiea,

Hawaii.


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W" is the only letter in the alphabet that does not have one syllable. It has three!

"Deeded" is the only word that is made using only two different letters, each used three

times.

The only words with three consecutive double letters are "bookkeeping" and

"bookkeeper".

If you spell out every number from 0 to 999, you will find every vowel except for "a". You

have to count to one thousand to find an "a"!

"Q" is the only letter that is not used in the name of any of the United States.

HIV VIRUS is an obvious redundancy, since the "v" stands for "virus."


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1. English came fromGermanic roots: When tribes

from what is now Germanycame to the land that wouldbe England, they brought with

them the language that would

eventually grow into thedialect we use today.

2. There are three basiceras to English formation:

Old English, which ran fromthe 5th through 11th

centuries; Middle English,which lasted until the 15th

century; and Modern English,which takes us to the present.
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3. Beowulf, whose author isunknown, is the most well-

known remnant of OldEnglish: The epic poemsurvives in a single manuscript

dating to sometime between

the 8th and 11th century.4. Half the words we usetoday have roots in OldEnglish: Although Old and

Modern English look incrediblydifferent, words as diverse as

water and be are merelyforms of words that came into

English use centuries ago.5. English disappeared fromwritten language for a
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while: The Norman

conquest of England in 1066

established Norman French asthe upper-class language andrelegated English to peasants.

Churches keep records in

French, and novelists write inthat language. Basically,

English stops being a writtenlanguage for more than 100

years.6. English literature didntreappear until after 1200:Changing political climates led

to the Provisions of Oxford, aconstitution-like document

written in English in 1258. By
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1300, English as a language

had taken hold again.

7. We owe our language tothe Great Vowel Shift:Danish linguist Otto Jespersen

coined the term Great Vowel

Shift to refer to the periodbetween 1450 and 1750

during which pronunciationrules for English changed

drastically. This is when thingsstarted to sound the way they

do now.8. The Great Vowel Shift is

just what it sounds like:The shift wasnt just a change

in thinking, but an actual
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relocation of vowel creation in

peoples mouths and throats.

We didnt just pronouncethings differently; wephysically made different

noises. The GVS was

revolutionary.9. Checkmate is moreliteral than you think: Thechess term is an alteration of

shah mat, a Persian phrasethat meant the king is

ambushed.UsageEnglish is constantly changing and being used in new ways.
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10.Set has moredefinitions than any other

English word: Twenty-five asa transitive verb, 11 asintransitive, 24 as a noun, and

seven as an adjective. That

doesnt even count phrases.11.Irritate andaggravate are differentwords: Irritate means to

annoy; aggravate meansto make worse. A lot of word

pairs are easily mixed up, butmost people dont even know

this is an error. But take itfrom a militant grammarian: it

is. Oh, it is.
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12.There are more than 125English dialects worldwide:

Each dialect uses English in itsown way, from pronunciationto construction.

PhrasesOur speech is filled with special phrases and expressions, butmost people dont know where they originated. Heres the truth

behind some of them. Impress (or irritate) your friends!

13.No one knows who came

up with the whole nineyards.: The most widely

cited story to explain the

origin of this phrase, which

means completely or usingeverything, is that soldiers in

World War II started using it
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in reference to firing the entire

length of an ammunition belt

on an anti-aircraft gun. Yetthere are no written instancesof the phrase before 1962,

and many other stories and

theories have been advanced.Everyone knows what it

means; no one knows how itgot here.

14.God, actually, is in thedetails: The idiom the devil

is in the details is meant toimply that theres always a

catch to a situation, usuallyhard to find. But the phrase is

actually an inversion of the
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earlier God is in the details,

which means that the most

important part of any job orproject is the details, and thatwork is worth doing well and

thoroughly. No one knows

who came up with the original,either; its been sourced to

Gustave Flaubert and LudwigMies van der Rohe, though

incorrectly.15.Five by five isntmeasuring anything: Atleast, nothing physical. The

phrase refers to the twoseparate five-point scales, one

for signal strength and one for
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clarity, used to refer to radio

communications. Five by five

means youre getting the bestof both, and its used to meanyou understand someones

point.

16.Its hear, hear. Trustme.: The phrase is short for

hear him, hear him,meaning you want people to

be quiet and pay attention tosomeone saying something

important. Its not repeat, nothere, here.

Everyone knows where youare.
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17.Kangaroo courts havenothing to do with

Australia: Despite the linkagewith Australias most famousanimal, the phrase Kangaroo

court is 100% American. The

term sprang up (ha) shortlyafter the California Gold Rush,

referring to sham trials wherejustice proceeds with giant,

kangaroo-like leaps that skipover facts and due process.

18.The Devils advocatewas, well, just that:

Although playing devilsadvocate now means to take

a position just for the sake of
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argument, the spiritually

tinged phrase has its origins in

the Roman Catholic Church.When considering someone forsainthood, the Promoter of the

Faith, aka the Devils

Advocate, would take theopposing view and try to poke

holes in the case supportingthat particular canonization.

Letters and TriviaThe more you research the language, the more you realize justhow much of it has been borrowed from other tongues.

19.Dozens of nations have

English as their official (orco-official) language: These

include the U.K., Ireland, New
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Zealand, South Africa, and

Australia.

20.English is the mostwidespread language in theworld: A higher number of

people speak Mandarin, but

English covers a great area.21.The letter combinationough can be pronouncedeight different ways: Heres

a sentence that captures themall: A rough-coated, dough-

faced ploughman strodethrough the streets of

Scarborough, coughing andhiccoughing thoughtfully.
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22.English has borrowedwords from almost 150

languages: Everything fromivory to banjo andhundreds of other words

started out in other

languages.23.William Shakespearemade up many of hiswords: The pre-eminent

English writer invented nearly2,000 words and catch

phrases.24.More English speakers

reside in the U.S. thananywhere else: More than

250 million Americans speak
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English (and its the first

language for 215 million of

them), placing it easily at thetop of the list. Second place?India, with 125 million.

25.The actual number of

words in the Englishlanguage is up for debate:

Some dictionaries claim thereare 600,000, while others say

less than 500,000. Either way,its a lot.

26.Only one eight-letterword contains just one

vowel: Its strength.27.Lots of bears in theArctic: The Arctic gets its
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name from the Greek word

arktikos, which means

northern or near the Bear,and is turn derived from theGreek word arktos, which

means bear. The name

refers to the constellationsUrsa Major and Ursa Minor,

the Great Bear and Little Bear.The Little Bear contains the

North Star.28.Theres a reason typistspractice using The quickbrown fox jumps over the

lazy dog.: It contains everyletter in the alphabet, making


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the ancillary companion

books.)

Word OriginsEver wonder where words come from? Some of these

inventions and origins will surprise you.

31.Boycott was a man:The word boycott comes

from Charles Boycott, anEnglish army captain in the

late 1800s who was financially

ostracized when he tried toevict some tenants. The word

now refers to the habit of

refusing to do business with

someone instead of resortingto more drastic measures.
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32.Twenty-five of the 50United States derive their

state names fromlanguages of NativeAmericans and other

indigenous people: Just for

starters: Alabama comes fromthe Alabama tribe, Kentucky is

an Iroquoian word for on thefield, and Mississippi is from

an Algonquin language andmeans big river.

33.Whats more, we also gethundreds of everyday

words from NativeAmerican languages:

Caribou, chipmunk, pecan,
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opossum, raccoon,

woodchuck, chocolate, and so

many more.34.Shrapnel was also aman: Henry Shrapnel was a

British officer who designed

the first anti-personnel shelldesigned to spread little

fragments of artillery.35.Skatings most popular

term is a tribute to itscreator: Although the move

a jump with a forwardtakeoffsounds like axle,

its actually axel, named forits creator, Axel Paulsen of

Norway.
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36.The inventor of theleotard was, well, Leotard:

French acrobat Jules Leotard who also inspired the tune

The Daring Young Man on the

Flying Trapeze was notable

for wearing a one-piece, skin-tight uniform while

performing. It now bears hisname.

37.Bloomers bloomers: Anadvocate of womens rights

(yay!) and temperance (boo),Amelia Bloomer was such a

fan of these loose pants thather name became

permanently linked to them.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jules_L%C3%A9otardhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jules_L%C3%A9otardhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jules_L%C3%A9otardhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jules_L%C3%A9otardhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amelia_Bloomerhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amelia_Bloomerhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amelia_Bloomerhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jules_L%C3%A9otardhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jules_L%C3%A9otard


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38.Sideburns, Burnside,etc.: Ambrose Burnside, a

Union general in the Civil War,sported some truly epic facialhair. It was such a distinctive

look that people began

referring to the style asburnsides, which eventually

slid around to becomesideburns.

39.Elbridge Gerry riggedeverything but his own

word: Massachusettsgovernor Elbridge Gerry did

some extreme redistricting in1812 to benefit the

Democratic-Republican Party,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ambrose_Burnsidehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ambrose_Burnsidehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ambrose_Burnsidehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ambrose_Burnsidehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerrymandering#Origin_of_the_termhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerrymandering#Origin_of_the_termhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerrymandering#Origin_of_the_termhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerrymandering#Origin_of_the_termhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerrymandering#Origin_of_the_termhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerrymandering#Origin_of_the_termhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerrymandering#Origin_of_the_termhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerrymandering#Origin_of_the_termhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ambrose_Burnsidehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ambrose_Burnside


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so much so that one of the

new districts was said to look

like a salamander. Very likelysomeone said it should insteadbe called a gerrymander

after the sneaky governor,

and the term stuck. Today itrefers to the practice of

redrawing the boundaries ofpolitical districts for deliberate

and unfair electoral purposes.40.Zamboni is not, in fact,an obscure Italian word:The word comes from Frank

Zamboni, a California businessman who invented the modern

machine in 1949. Even though
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the word is a trademark, its

entered into general use, and

pretty much everyone refersto ice resurfacing machinesused at skating and hockey

rinks as zambonies.

41.A Crapper invented thecrapper, but not the word

for, well, you know: Britishplumber Thomas Crapper

didnt come up with the ideafor the flush toilet, but he did

make remarkable designimprovements that helped

popularize water closets. As aresult, his name became a

noun synonymous with toilets.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Crapperhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Crapperhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Crapperhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Crapperhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Crapperhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Crapperhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Crapperhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Crapper


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However, the word crap did

not come from his name, but

was of Middle English originand first appeared inthe OED when Thomas was

just 10 years old. The fact

that he got into plumbing wasjust a weird, albeit awesome,

coincidence.42.Pullover? No, its a

Cardigan.: James Brudenell,7th Earl of Cardigan, liked to

bundle up when got chilly, andhe favored sweaters with

buttons down the middle overthose you have to pull over

your head to wear. As a
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result, such sweaters became

known as cardigans.

43.If you were a guy, youwere a killer: Guy Fawkeswas arrested in 1605 for

attempting to blow up

Parliament, an act which didnot exactly endear him to law

enforcement. The planneddestruction date, November 5,

came to be called Guy FawkesDay, marked by celebrations

in which effigies of Fawkeswere burned. These shortly

came to be known as guys,and the word morphed to

mean any effigy, then any
http://books.google.com/books?id=IrcZEZ1bOJsC&pg=PA208#v=onepage&q&f=falsehttp://books.google.com/books?id=IrcZEZ1bOJsC&pg=PA208#v=onepage&q&f=falsehttp://books.google.com/books?id=IrcZEZ1bOJsC&pg=PA208#v=onepage&q&f=falsehttp://books.google.com/books?id=IrcZEZ1bOJsC&pg=PA208#v=onepage&q&f=falsehttp://books.google.com/books?id=IrcZEZ1bOJsC&pg=PA208#v=onepage&q&f=falsehttp://books.google.com/books?id=IrcZEZ1bOJsC&pg=PA208#v=onepage&q&f=false


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person in unusual dress, and

finally, when the word crossed

the pond, men in general.44.Hooker had manypatrons: People started

referring to prostitutes as

hookers in the mid-1800sfor multiple reasons. For

starters, prostitutes wereheavily concentrated in the

Corlears Hook area ofManhattan, which gave rise to

the term, but the word alsogot a boost from a popular

legend that Union Gen. JosephHooker kept his men supplied

with working girls. Its not
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Hooker#prostitutehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Hooker#prostitutehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Hooker#prostitutehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Hooker#prostitutehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Hooker#prostitutehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Hooker#prostitute


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entirely true, but it didnt hurt

the words popularity.

45.Honchos arent who youthink they are: The word

honcho, meaning boss or big

shot, entered English in the

mid-20th century as analtered form of the Japanese

word hancho, which meanssquad leader.

Reference BooksThe history and creation of the books that define our language.

46.English dictionaries are

older than you think: Thefirst English dictionaries

included words in other
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languages with their

corresponding English

meaning. RichardMulcastersElemantarie, anonalphabetical list of 8,000

words (sounds, uh, helpful),

showed up in 1592.47.The first purely Englishdictionary appeared in1604: It was calledA Table

Alphabeticall[sic], and it waswritten by a schoolteacher

named Robert Cawdrey. Itwas far from a complete guide

to the language, and it wouldtake a century and a half for

the next step to be made.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dictionaries#Historyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dictionaries#Historyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dictionaries#Historyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dictionaries#Historyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dictionaries#Historyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dictionaries#Historyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dictionaries#Historyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dictionaries#History


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48.The first majordictionaryshowed up in 1755: Samuel

JohnsonsA Dictionary of theEnglish Language was nineyears in the making and

remained the most popular

and trusted dictionary untilthe Oxford English

Dictionaryarrived 175 yearslater.

49.Noah Webster gotstarted in 1806: That was

the year his first dictionary,ACompendious Dictionary of the

English Language. In additionto having the guts to call itself

compendious, it introduced
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Americanized spellings of

words that would become

linguistic law on this side ofthe pond, like center insteadof centre and program

instead of programme.

50.The first major thesaurusarrived in 1852: Peter Mark

Roget created his now-famousreference guide in 1805 but

didnt release it to the publicuntil 50 years later. The first

edition contained 15,000words.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roget's_Thesaurushttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roget's_Thesaurushttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roget's_Thesaurushttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roget's_Thesaurushttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roget's_Thesaurushttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roget's_Thesaurus


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n no particular order...

1. The most commonletter in English is "e".

2.The most common

vowel in English is "e",

followed by "a".

3. The most commonconsonant in English is

"r", followed by "t".

4. Every syllable inEnglish must have a


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vowel (sound). Not all

syllables haveconsonants.

5. Only two English

words in current useend in "-gry". They

are "angry" and

"hungry".

6. The word"bookkeeper" (along

with its associate

"bookkeeping") is the


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related to

"paraskevidekatriaphobia", which means

"fear of Friday the

13th".

8. More English wordsbegin with the letter

"s" than with anyother letter.

9. A preposition isalways followed by a

noun (ie noun, proper
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noun, pronoun, noun

group, gerund).

10. The word"uncopyrightable" is

the longest Englishword in normal use

that contains no letter

more than once.

11. A sentence thatcontains all 26 letters

of the alphabet is

called a "pangram".


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12. The following

sentence contains all26 letters of the

alphabet: "The quick

brown fox jumps over

the lazy dog." This

sentence is often used

to test typewriters or

keyboards.

13. The only word inEnglish that ends with

the letters "-mt" is

"dreamt" (which is a


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variant spelling of

"dreamed") - as wellof course as

"undreamt" :)

14. A word formed byjoining together parts

of existing words is

called a "blend" (or,less commonly, a

"portmanteau word").Many new words enter

the English language

in this way. Examples


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are "brunch"

(breakfast + lunch);"motel" (motorcar +

hotel); and

"guesstimate" (guess

+ estimate). Note that

blends are not the

same as compounds

or compound nouns,which form when two

whole words join

together, for example:website, blackboard,

darkroom.
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15. The word

"alphabet" comesfrom the first two

letters of the Greek

alphabet: alpha, bta.

16. The dot over theletter "i" and the letter

"j" is called a"superscript dot".

17. In normal usage,the # symbol has

several names, for


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example: hash, pound

sign, number sign.

18. In English, the @symbol is usually

called "the at sign" or"the at symbol".

19. If we place acomma before theword "and" at the end

of a list, this is known

as an "Oxford comma"

or a "serial comma".


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For example: "I drink

coffee, tea, and wine."

20. Some words existonly in plural form, for

example: glasses(spectacles),

binoculars, scissors,

shears, tongs,gallows, trousers,

jeans, pants, pyjamas(but note that clothing

words often become

singular when we use


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them as modifiers, as

in "trouser pocket").

21. The shortestcomplete sentence in

English is thefollowing. "I am."

22. The word"Checkmate" in chesscomes from the

Persian phrase "Shah

Mat" meaning "the

king is helpless".


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23. We pronounce the

combination "ough" in9 different ways, as in

the following sentence

which contains them

all: "A rough-coated,

dough-faced,

thoughtful ploughman

strode through thestreets of

Scarborough; after

falling into a slough,he coughed and

hiccoughed."


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Download

24. The longestEnglish word without a

true vowel (a, e, i, oor u) is "rhythm".

25. The only planetnot named after a godis our own, Earth. The

others are, in order

from the Sun,

Mercury, Venus,
http://www.englishclub.com/audio/ough.mp3http://www.englishclub.com/audio/ough.mp3


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[Earth,] Mars, Jupiter,

Saturn, Uranus,Neptune.

26. There are only 4

English words incommon use ending in

"-dous": hazardous,

horrendous,stupendous, and

tremendous.

27. We can find 10words in the 7-letter


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word "therein" without

rearranging any of itsletters: the, there, he,

in, rein, her, here,

ere, therein, herein.

28. The followingsentence contains 7

identical words in arow and still makes

sense. "It is true forallthat that that that

that that that refers

to is not the same


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that that that that

refers to." (= It is truefor all that, that that

"that" which that

"that" refers to is not

the same "that" which

that "that" refers to.)


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Adam Tue Jul 05, 2005 5:55

pm GMTNo word in the Englishlanguage rhymes with

month.

"Dreamt" is the only

English word that ends inthe letters "mt".

The word "set" has more

definitions than any otherword in the English


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language.

"Underground" is the onlyword in the Englishlanguage that begins andends with the letters"und."

The longest one-syllableword in the Englishlanguage is "screeched."

There are only four wordsin the English language


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which end in"-dous":

tremendous, horrendous,stupendous, andhazardous.

The longest word in theEnglish language,according to the Oxford

English Dictionary, ispneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis.

The only other word withthe same amount of letters


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is

pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconioses, itsplural.

There is a seven letterword in the Englishlanguage that contains ten

words without rearrangingany of its letters,"therein": the, there, he,in, rein, her, here, here,ere, therein, herein.


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No words in the English

language rhyme withorange, silver or purple.

'Stewardesses' is thelongest word that is typedwith only the left hand.

To "testify" was based onmen in the Roman courtswearing to a statementmade by swearing on theirtesticles.


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The combination "ough"

can be pronounced in ninedifferent ways. Thefollowing sentencecontains them all: "Arough-coated, dough-faced, thoughtfulploughman strode through

the streets ofScarborough; after fallinginto a slough, he coughedand hiccoughed."

The verb "cleave" is the


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only English word with

two synonyms which areantonyms of each other:adhere and separate.

The only 15 letter wordthat can be spelledwithout repeating a letter

is "uncopyrightable."

Damian in Live 8

Edinburg Tue Jul 05, 2005

7:14 pm GMT


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There is a town in Devon,

England, the name ofwhich contains exactlyhalf the letters of thestandard English alphabet(13)...and of these not oneis repeated:

BUCKFASTLEIGH

Damian in Live 8

Edinburg Tue Jul 05, 2005

7:17 pm GMT


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.....and I've got tickets for

tomorrow night! :-)Jo Tue Jul 05, 2005 7:41 pm

GMT

No words in the Englishlanguage rhyme withorange, silver or purple.

Adam,What about pilfer withsilver?

Frances Tue Jul 05, 2005

10:52 pm GMT


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"No words in the English

language rhyme withorange, silver or purple.Adam,What about pilfer withsilver?"

They don't rhyme for me

Kazoo Fri Jul 08, 2005 8:19 pm

GMTDid you know that the OldEnglish word for 'fart' was'verteth'. I wonder how


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and why it ever changed to

'fart', it shows noresemblance to the oldword.

Milanya Fri Jul 08, 2005 8:46pm GMTThe verb "cleave" is the

only English word withtwo synonyms which areantonyms of each other:adhere and separate.

What about the word


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"clip"?

1. To fasten with or as ifwith a clip; hold tightly2. To cut, cut off, or cutout

Kazoo Sat Jul 09, 2005 10:05

pm GMT

On second thought,'vert'(eth) and 'fart' dosound vaguely similar.Maybe I've just answeredmy own question.


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Mouse Tue Jul 26, 2005 9:47

am GMTPatronize is the same asclip and cleave.

If you patronize someone,you are either supporting

him or berating him.Robert Tue Jul 26, 2005 7:26

pm GMT

>The verb "cleave" is theonly English word with


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two synonyms

>which are antonyms ofeach other: adhere andseparate.

Also "to sanction" in thesenses of "to allow" and"to prohibit".

An additional fun fact...George Bernard Shawused to mention that"ghoti" can be pronounced"fish". The "gh" from


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"tough", the "o" from

"women", and the "ti"from "nation".

Rick Johnson Tue Jul 26,

2005 8:07 pm GMT"On second thought,'vert'(eth) and 'fart' do

sound vaguely similar.Maybe I've just answeredmy own question."

Must have changed prettyearly on because "fart"


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appears in The Canterbury

Tales in the late 14thCentury. Maybe the "v"sound was close to theGerman "v" sound.

Ved Wed Jul 27, 2005 2:59 am

GMT

For me, "orange" rhymeswith "syringe".

Ved Wed Jul 27, 2005 3:02 am

GMT


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That is, of course, if

identical ultimate syllablesand identical stresspatterns count asrhyming.

D Wed Jul 27, 2005 3:04 am

GMT

> Dreamt" is the onlyEnglish word that ends inthe letters "mt".

What about unkempt?


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D Wed Jul 27, 2005 3:05 am

GMTWhat about unkempt?

That is, are there otherwords that end in 'mpt'?

facts english

Documents