Random Thursday

Time for a new chapter in The Little Book of Answers by Doug Lennox. This time it's on Words. I will be curious to see what we will learn from this chapter!

(image borrowed from Wall Street Journal)

The dollar gets the nickname "a buck" from when the Native Americans traded for things with the European settlers. The Native Americans taught them the value of a buck, showing that there was value with deer and buckskin. This was used as the unit of value against what else was being traded.

Interesting.

(image borrowed from AccuWeather)

We started calling snowstorms "blizzards" in 1870 when a newspaper editor in Iowa needed a word to describe a severe spring storm. "Blizzard" had been a word that was 'hanging around with no particular origin' for 50 years. It was used to describe a violent attack involving fists or guns. So the editor thought why not used this word to describe the fierce snowstorm?

That's interesting too!

(image borrowed from Curbed)

Living in luxury is said to be living a "posh" experience. This term came about in the early days when British tourists would travel by ship to warmer climates like India, during the colder weather. When they traveled, they would want cabins shaded from the sun. This basically led to them having one cabin on the way there, and a different one on the return trip. Their tickets would be marked POSH, meaning "Portside Out, Starboard Home." And soon the term "posh" just stuck.

It's definitely making me look at Posh Spice differently! LOL!

(image borrowed from Wired UK)

A ship developed the names starboard and port for the respective right and left side in the very early days of navigation. A helmsman would stand at the stern of the ship and direct it by using the rudder that was on the right side. It was called a "steer board" and it evolved into "starboard" by the Anglo-Saxons. The port side earned its name because that was the side that was able to rest against the harbor or port.

This I never knew and always wondered!!

(image borrowed from Standford School of Engineering)

We've gained many expressions from the astronauts that are apart of our everyday language, "glitch" being one of them. "Glitch" was an unexplained computer malfunction that was first used to describe the Mercury space capsule's annoying tendency to signal an emergency when there wasn't one.

My brain is going to Stitch Has a Glitch right now. Sorry! Lol.