The word 'mortgage' comes from a French law term that means 'death pledge'.
14
Switching letters is called spoonerism. For example, saying "jag of Flapan", instead of "flag of Japan".
2
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.
44
Shakespeare invented over 1,700 words that we use today.
17
Floccinaucinihilipilification, the declaration of an item being useless, is the longest non-medical term in the English language.
125
Anuptaphobia is the fear of staying single.
11
There are only four words in the English language which end in “dous”:
tremendous, horrendous, stupendous, and hazardous.
tremendous, horrendous, stupendous, and hazardous.
175
The word "impossible" dropped in use by 50% over the course of the 20th century
5