The word 'mortgage' comes from a French law term that means 'death pledge'.
14
The word 'mile' is derived from the Latin word for 1,000 - the number of paces it took the average Roman!
6
Borat, when supposedly speaking in Kazakh with his partner throughout the film, was actually speaking fluent Hebrew.
5
The six official languages of the United Nations are Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, and Spanish.
31
More people in Africa speak French than in France itself.
12
In 1700s, the deer skin was a common medium of exchange between the trading settlers and the native Red Indians in America. This is how a buck became a slang for a dollar.
28
When Washoe, the first chimp to use sign language, was told that her caretaker's baby had died, she signed "CRY."
20