In Turkish, the bird we call a Turkey is called "Hindi" ("from India"). In India, it's called "Peru." In Arabic, the bird is called "Greek chicken"; in Greek it's called "French chicken"; and in French it's called "Indian chicken." The bird is indigenous to none of these places.
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When Washoe, the first chimp to use sign language, was told that her caretaker's baby had died, she signed "CRY."
20
The word 'mortgage' comes from a French law term that means 'death pledge'.
14
The Danish word for condom is 'svangerskabsforebyggendemiddel'.
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More people in Africa speak French than in France itself.
12
Borat, when supposedly speaking in Kazakh with his partner throughout the film, was actually speaking fluent Hebrew.
5
The equivalents of the English saying "That's Greek to me" are "This appears to be Spanish" (German), "This is Chinese to me" (Dutch), "It's German to me" (Philippines), "It's Hebrew" (Finnish), "It's Chinese to me" (Hebrew), "Sounds like Mars language/These are chicken intestines" (China).
10
'Go', is the shortest complete sentence in the English language.
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