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Trivia ~ Words & Phrases
Page 2
In 1281, Kublai Khan, conqueror of China, assembles 140 thousand warriors to invade the Japanese Islands. Soon he is on the verge of a great victory.
But everything changes when a powerful typhoon slams into the Japanese coast. The storm wreaks havoc on the invasion force. Ships are dashed upon the rocks. Exhausted survivors are slaughtered by the Japanese. More than 60 thousand perish, and Japan is saved.
The Japanese give credit to the gods, calling the typhoon "The Divine Wind".. or "Kamikaze" a term that will one day live in infamy.
How the British sailor's rum ration came to be called "grog"
I 'm not sure how it came to be that British sailors actually had a rum ration. But chug-a-lugging rum while trying to keep a ship on a steady course must have gotten to be a bit much.
In 1740 a certain Admiral Vernon ordered that the rum ration be diluted with water. The Admiral often wore a coat made of grogram, a rough material, frequently a mixture of mohair and wool. For that reason he was known as Old Grog, hence the nickname of the new watered-rum ration.
The grog ration itself ended in 1970. Maybe sailors were still getting too groggy at the helm.
For centuries, no city was more glorious than Rome. As the center of the Roman Empire, its very streets, and statues, temples and public places embodied the most beautiful art and architecture of the civilized world.
So when Rome was savagely plundered in 455 AD, it was an event so frightening, it burned a new word into our vocabulary.
Today, when we are horrified by a wanton act of destruction, we travel back in time to recall the marauders of Rome who were from a Germanic tribe called… the Vandals.
So often when we search for the origins of everyday expressions we have to go to sea. Here's another one that stems from the days of sailing ships.
Sailors in that era lived constantly with risk. They had less control over their vessels, faced a greater threat from icebergs, were more meagerly equipped to deal with rough and dangerous weather, and were considerably less able to predict the weather in the first place. Close calls were frequent, especially when it came to, say, striking an object or running aground. A delicate or risky situation, then, was one in which a ship touched something - brushed it, perhaps -but could still keep going: "touch and go."
I guess the sinking of the Titanic was an example of "touch and no go.
"What's the difference between "partly sunny" and "partly cloudy?"
I always guessed that this was a matter of the glass being half full or half empty: what you called it depended on your outlook. I was half right. They do have similar meanings.
One of them however is a standard scientific term while the other is a function of, well, your outlook. Can you guess which is mood, which meteorology?
Smile: a partly sunny day is all in your head. Partly cloudy, a technical term, is when the cloud cover is between 31 and 70 percent.
In aviation, the similar term, describing a cloud cover of 10 to 50 percent, is "scattered clouds." So if the weather person says it's going to be "partly sunny," that simply means that he or she is relieved that the weekend barbecue is going to happen after all.
Why is a useless gift or possession called a "white elephant?
White elephants were rare even in Siam (the modern Thailand). If you found one the emperor automatically owned it and you couldn't harm it. When the emperor wanted to punish someone, he gave him or her a white elephant as a "gift." They couldn't ride it or work it, but they still had to take care of, feed and clean up after it. And you know what elephants do besides eat. So the gift was useless. Hence the expression.
If the name of a place in Great Britain ends in "by", it is a good bet the name came down from the Vikings. By is a common Scandinavian word for village. And by the way, it is also where we get the term "By-Laws"
Most people when asked to guess about its origins figure that the "mare" in nightmare has something to do with horses.
But that's not the etymology of nightmare--not by a long shot. It comes from the Old English word "maere," which means an incubus, a tiny demon that stands on your chest during the night, suffocating you.
Why would an incubus do that to you? You probably did something to upset nature's laws. Maybe you served white wine with red meat, wore a red suit with brown shoes, or did some other nightmarish thing.
The word buccaneer comes from the Caribbean, known as the "Spanish Main" in days of yore, and it's origin has nothing to do with swash or buckle.
It arose in the 17th century and was derived from the French verb, boucaner, to cure meat, as in putting the flesh out on a wooden rack to dry. Pirates preserved meat in this manner so that they could store it on long voyages.
It is thus not swordplay that figures in the origins of "buccaneer," but knife and fork play. It was not about satisfying the pirate's appetite for booty, just his appetite.
A group of unicorns is called a blessing.
A group of kangaroos is called a mob.
A group of whales is called a pod.
A group of geese is called a gaggle.
A group of owls is called a parliament.
A group of ravens is called a murder.
A group of bears is called a sleuth.
12 or more cows is called a flink.
A baby oyster is called a spat.
Why do we say that something that is just right is "on the nose"?
This is an interesting expression simply because so many people would be willing to bet that it was born at the racetrack, where any part of a horse that extends over the finish line first is enough to make it a winner. Given the shape of a horse, that has to be its nose.
Well take a deep breath. Would you believe that "on the nose" comes from radio?
When broadcasting began, directors had to communicate with people on the air without making noise, so they developed hand signals. Time is always a key element in live broadcasts. The person at the mike needed to know if the program was on schedule. If things were "just right," the director signaled with a finger to the side of his or her nose
As bits of trivia are presented on my e-mail list I will add them here. See them first by sending an e-mail to twotreestrivia-subscribe@topica.com
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