Did Shakespeare Really Invent 1,700 Words? Not Quite
Probably not, or at least nowhere near that many. Shakespeare almost certainly coined some new words, but being the first person whose use of a word survives in writing is…
Is a Buttload a Real Unit of Measurement? Yes, Sort Of
Yes, sort of. There really was an old English unit called a butt, a large cask of wine holding roughly 477 litres. But “buttload” itself is mostly slang, and its…
What Was the Last Letter Added to the Alphabet? Meet J
The last letter added to the alphabet wasn’t Z. The answer you’ll usually find is J, the 26th and final letter of the modern English alphabet to become a letter…
Horse Statue Leg Meaning: Do the Hooves Reveal How the Rider Died?
If you have ever looked at a statue of someone on horseback and wondered why the horse has one hoof raised, two hooves raised or all four on the ground,…
The Missing Letters of the Alphabet: Thorn, Wynn and More
The alphabet is one of the first things we learn as children, and its 26 letters feel as fixed as anything in the language. But English has used more letters…
Where Did the Word OK Come From? A Joke From 1839
OK might be the most successful word English has ever produced. People use it in dozens of languages; it is on buttons on almost every computer and phone, and many…
Do the Kings in a Deck of Cards Represent Real Kings?
If you are like me, you have shuffled a deck of cards hundreds of times without wondering who the kings are meant to be. I always assumed they were just…
MIT Pirate Certificate: How Students Become Official Pirates
MIT is famous for engineering, computer science, Nobel Prizes and some seriously difficult courses. It also has pirates. Since 2011, students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have been able…