At The Book of Everyone, we enjoy finding weird curiosities and facts about the world. Recently, we've been looking for the weirdest words that you probably didn't know existed for our #wordnerd series on Facebook.
Let us know which ones you knew or didn't!
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Daisy
Audio And Video
Gymnasium
Oh geez, might be a bit too much flopping around for me, but interesting fact.
Interesting little brag embedded in your post...
Load More Replies...Because the original gymnasium was some sort of sports court - and ancient greek men always exercised naked.
Ancient Greeks apparently also participated in the Olympics naked as well. So why not exercise naked.
Load More Replies...in greece they are called that too. the first 3 years are gymnasiums, the next 3 lycium
Load More Replies...And because the gymnasion was where all the young boys were going, it was also the place where philosophers would hold their lessons. Thus it also became a place of learning. In German to this day "Gymnasium" is the term for a secondary school akin to a US college preparatory school.
Geez, I'd be exercising a whole lot more . . . to see and be seen . . .
So how did it come to mean high school in Germany and Sweden?
Knew this one too. OUr school had a gymnasium, as well as a lyceum(really just a large open room for meetings)
"Zein" is Greek for corn. "Sion" is Greek for place (like museum, place of the muse). So either the word means naked corn, or a place for naked exercise. The Book of Everyone may need to do a bit more research.
"Zien" is Greek for corn. "sion" means place. Gymnasium is a place to exercise naked.
Dutch Feast
Hell, that's every holiday. You gotta be drunk to host my family get togethers
Doryphore
Girl
so that's why my teacher will say "alright girls" every time he starts class
Bluetooth
Acnestis
No one’s going to scratch your back if you fling this word at them...
Bully
Cappuccino
I read that too fast and it registered as Capuchin monkey, which I guess also works. 8F7DB85E-8...0-jpeg.jpg
Helvetica
That's also why the Swiss country code is CH, like on the rear of a car: Confederatio Helvetica, "confederation of the Helvetian tribes".
Asinine
Atrate
Baisure
Does this come from the French word "baiser" which means "to kiss"? Breads that kiss in the oven... I loaf this romantic idea! ;-)
Dulciloquent
don Quixote's love, Dulcinea. His horse was Rocinante. Literally "first nag"
Floccinaucinihilipilification
Pandiculation
Harlot
Magniloquent
Muscle
For anyone wondering why: A cliché muscle has a thick middle part that tapers towards the tendons. Hence, it looks a little like the body of a mouse.
Janitor
Related in the sense that both refer to doors/gates (ianua in latin) --- janitor= doorkeeper; Ianus= god of beginnings and endings/passages.
Mythomania
Host And Guest
Agelastic
Bathos
Buccula
This article needs a lot of work and some more explanation for many of them.
Love this sort of stuff. Much better than yet more cute cats or social media arguments.
I'd certainly welcome more word articles, but cute cats have their place, too.
Load More Replies...I wonder why some words change meaning over time. Hiw does a word go from meaning "bundle of sticks" to evenutally being derogatory ? (English F word) or from meaning happy to meaning turned on? Norwegian K word)
Most of these need more explanation or context. They seem to be edited down for the "surprise" factor . A lot of them are quite a stretch.
Hey, thanks for the feedback. All of these are part of a collection we have posted on our Facebook page over the last 2 years. Unfortunately, because it spans such a long time, it's difficult to go back to each one and find the explanation that we wrote up for each one - we'll definitely try to include more explanation in the next one, though!
Load More Replies...Helvètes is a french word that means : The Helvetii (Helvetii) are a group of Celtic peoples from the eastern end of Gaul established on the Swiss plateau (with Aventicum as its capital) when the Suevi were set in motion towards southwestern Germany at the beginning of the 1st century. century BC J.-C.
Good concept, needs more research and explanations. Being fluent in Greek, most of these were, well, words of my first language, and not very obscure at that.
#23 not to be confused with nihilartikels, which I just realized I did in my comment for law review on the demise of the "sweat of the brow test" and which may be one of the reasons my article was not selected for publication. Oops.
#19 is pejorative and bigoted, FYI. https://www.newnetherlandinstitute.org/files/2613/6700/9122/DISSING_THE_DUTCH.pdf
Oh dear, then you had better NEVER watch the third Austin Powers movie “Goldmember.” https://youtu.be/zcUs5X9glCc
Load More Replies...This article needs a lot of work and some more explanation for many of them.
Love this sort of stuff. Much better than yet more cute cats or social media arguments.
I'd certainly welcome more word articles, but cute cats have their place, too.
Load More Replies...I wonder why some words change meaning over time. Hiw does a word go from meaning "bundle of sticks" to evenutally being derogatory ? (English F word) or from meaning happy to meaning turned on? Norwegian K word)
Most of these need more explanation or context. They seem to be edited down for the "surprise" factor . A lot of them are quite a stretch.
Hey, thanks for the feedback. All of these are part of a collection we have posted on our Facebook page over the last 2 years. Unfortunately, because it spans such a long time, it's difficult to go back to each one and find the explanation that we wrote up for each one - we'll definitely try to include more explanation in the next one, though!
Load More Replies...Helvètes is a french word that means : The Helvetii (Helvetii) are a group of Celtic peoples from the eastern end of Gaul established on the Swiss plateau (with Aventicum as its capital) when the Suevi were set in motion towards southwestern Germany at the beginning of the 1st century. century BC J.-C.
Good concept, needs more research and explanations. Being fluent in Greek, most of these were, well, words of my first language, and not very obscure at that.
#23 not to be confused with nihilartikels, which I just realized I did in my comment for law review on the demise of the "sweat of the brow test" and which may be one of the reasons my article was not selected for publication. Oops.
#19 is pejorative and bigoted, FYI. https://www.newnetherlandinstitute.org/files/2613/6700/9122/DISSING_THE_DUTCH.pdf
Oh dear, then you had better NEVER watch the third Austin Powers movie “Goldmember.” https://youtu.be/zcUs5X9glCc
Load More Replies...