Updated on Nov 11th 2008
Q) What is the origin of the word Serein?
A) Serein: Fine rain falling from an apparently cloudless sky, typically observed after sunset.
Serein comes from the French word serein, from Old French serain (evening), from Latin serum (evening), from serus (late).
Q) What is the origin of the word ‘Booze’?
Booze – (Verb) Consume alcohol; (Noun) an alcoholic beverage that is distilled rather than fermented.
The word has been around since the fourteenth century. It comes from the Middle Dutch verb busen, meaning to drink heavily, and first appeared in English as a verb spelled bouse/bowse.
Folklore has it that this term for liquor comes from a Philadelphia distiller named E.C. Booz who prospered around 1840 by selling a popular spirit in bottles shaped like a log cabin. This is not correct.
"Booze" is an alcoholic drink, while "boos" is both the first-person form of the verb to boo and the plural of the noun boo.
Q) What is the origin of the word ‘Alcohol’?
Alcohol – Any of a series of volatile hydroxyl compounds that are made from hydrocarbons by distillation; a liquor or brew containing alcohol as the active agent.
This word comes from the Arabic al-kuhl, which originally meant a very fine powder of antimony used as eye makeup. It conveyed the idea of something very fine and subtle, and the Arab alchemists therefore gave the name of al-kuhl to any impalpable powder obtained by sublimation (the direct transformation of a solid into vapor, or the reverse process), and thus to all compounds obtained through the distillation process.
Alcohol Trivia
v The word "toast," meaning a wish of good health, started in ancient
v Vikings used the skulls of their enemies as drinking vessels.
v Each molecule of alcohol is less than a billionth of a meter long and consists of a few atoms of oxygen, carbon and hydrogen.
v President Lincoln, when informed that General Grant drank whiskey while leading his troops, reportedly replied "Find out the name of the brand so I can give it to my other generals."
Q) What is the origin of the word ‘Draconian’?
The word draconian is inspired from Draco, a lawmaker in Ancient
The Athenians were upset about unequal treatment under the existing laws, so Draco instituted a new legal system guaranteed to shut folks up. Under the Draconic code of 621 B.C., nearly everything from robbery to murder was punishable by death.
When questioned about the fairness of such a one-size-fits-all approach, Draco is said to have declared, "Small crimes deserve death, and for great crimes I know of no penalty severer."
Q) What is the origin of the word ‘Ketchup’?
Ketchup– Thick spicy sauce made from tomatoes.
The Chinese invented ke-tsiap--a concoction of pickled fish and spices (but no tomatoes)--in the 1690s. By the early 1700s its popularity had spread to
Ketchup Trivia
v Ketchup was sold in the 1830s as medicine.
v The rate at which Heinz Ketchup comes out of the bottle is at about 25 miles per year.
v In the 18th and 19th century, ketchup was a generic term used for various sauces whose only common ingredient was vinegar.
v Catsup is a synonym of ketchup.
Q) What is the origin of the word ‘Quiz’?
The story goes that a
Q) What is the origin of the word ‘Etymology’?
A)Etymology - The study of the
sources and development of words, basically the history and origin of a word.
The word etymology itself comes from the Greek word
étymon which means 'true meaning', from 'etymos'
- true and lógos which means word.
The term was originally applied to the search of "original" or "true" meanings
of words.
The Sanskrit linguists and grammarians of ancient India
were the first to make a comprehensive analysis of linguistics and etymology.
The study of Sanskrit etymology has provided Western scholars the basis of
historical linguistics and modern etymology. Four of the most famous Sanskrit
linguists are:
* Yaska (c. 7th-6th century BCE)
* Pānini (c. 520-460 BCE)
* Kātyāyana (2nd century BCE)
* Patañjali (2nd century BCE)
Q) What is the origin of the word ‘Escape’?
A) Escape - Run away from confinement/unpleasant situations; flee.
In Latin, escape means "out of cape." The ancient Romans would often avoid capture by throwing off their capes when fleeing.
Some of the synonyms of escape are as follows, break
away, break loose, bunk, dodging, elude, escapism, evasion, flight, fly the
coop, get away, get by, get off, head for the hills, hightail it, lam, scarper,
scat, take to the woods, turn tail and many more…
Q) What is the origin of the word ‘Algorithm’?
A) Algorithm - A precise rule (or set of rules) specifying how to solve some problem.
Algorithm which means "rules for computing" in English, comes from
al-Khowarizmi,the Persian astronomer and mathematician, who wrote a treatise in Arabic in 825 AD – ‘On Calculation with Hindu Numerals’, which
was translated into Latin in the 12th century as Algoritmi de numero Indorum, which title was likely intended to mean "Algoritmi on the numbers of the Indians", where "Algoritmi" was the translator's rendition of the author's name; but people misunderstanding the title treated
Algoritmi as a Latin plural and this led to the word "algorithm"
(Latin algorismus) coming to mean "calculation method". The intrusive "th"
is most likely due to a false cognate with Greek αριθμος
arithmos = "number".
Q) What is the origin of the word ‘Candidate’?
A) Candidate - Someonewho is considered for something/politics (for an office or prize or honor etc.).
The word candidateoriginates from the Latin word Candidus meaning, "bright, shining, glisteningwhite". The ancient Roman candidates for office would wear bright white togas [A one-piece cloak worn by men in ancient Rome].
This same word also gaverise to "candid," which is difficult to find in many a candidate.Candid -Directness in manner or speech; without subtlety or evasion.
Q) What is the originof the word ‘Disaster’?
A) Disaster (from Middle French désastre, from Old Italian disastro,
from the Greek dis- meaning "bad" + aster meaning "star") is "an
occurrence causing widespread destruction and distress; a catastrophe" or "a
grave misfortune."
The word disaster's rootis from astrology: this implies that when the stars are in a bad position a badevent will happen.
It is often argued thatall disasters are human-made, because human actions before the strike of thehazard can prevent it developing into a disaster.
A specific disaster mayspawn a secondary disaster that increases the impact. A classic example is anearthquake that causes a tsunami, resulting in coastal flooding.
Q)What is the origin of the word ‘Picnic’?
A) Picnic - A day devoted to an outdoor social gathering; any informal meal
eaten outside or on an excursion.
Picnic comes to us fromthe French pique-nique. The original French meaning, first appearing in 1694 inthe form repas à piquenique, referred to a meal where everyone contributedeither food or money, a pot-luck meal. In modern French usage, the term hasadopted the English sense of a meal eaten as part of an outing of some sort.
The first element inthe French term, pique, is similar to the English pick. Both can mean to eat, inparticular to eat in small, dainty mouthfuls. Nique originally had a meaning ofnothing and later came to be used to mean a small coin. Undoubtedly chosenbecause it is reduplicative with pique, it can be interpreted to mean a trifle.So a picnic is a meal of small items or delicacies.
In the year 2000, a600-mile-long picnic took place from coast to coast in France to celebrate thefirst Bastille Day of the new Millennium. In the United States, likewise, the4th of July celebration of American independence is a popular day for a picnic.In Italy the favorite picnic day is 'Angel's Monday', also known as Pasquetta (='little Easter'), the day after Easter.
Q) What is the originof the word ‘Sugar’?
A) Sugar - A class ofedible crystalline substances including sucrose, lactose, and fructose with aflavor that is interpreted as sweet by human taste buds.
The English word"sugar" originates from the Arabic and Persian word shakar, itself derived fromSanskrit Sharkara.
It came to English by
way of French, Spanish and/or Italian, which derived their word for sugar from
the Arabic and Persian shakar (whence the Portuguese word açúcar, the Spanish
word azúcar, the Italian word zucchero, the Old French word zuchre and the
contemporary French word sucre).The Greek word for "sugar", zahari, means
"sugar" or "pebble".
The English word jaggery(meaning "coarse brown Indian sugar") has similar ultimate etymological origins(presumably in Sanskrit).
'Sugar' along with'Sure' are the only two words in the English language that are spelt 'su' and pronounced 'sh'. Sugar is the only taste humans are born craving
Q) What is the origin of the word ‘Denim / Jeans’?
A) These two words for the same type of fabric derive from place names, but from the names of two entirely different places.
The word denim comes from the French phrase serge de Nîmes, or serge from Nîmes, a town in southern France. Gradually the latter part of the phrase became clipped into the modern denim.
From Edward Hatton’s
The Merchant’s Magazine of 1695: Serge Denims that cost 6l. each.
Similarly, the word
‘jeans’ also comes from a place name, this time from Italy, Genoa in particular.
It comes from the French phrase jene fustian, meaning a type of twilled, cotton
cloth from Genoa. This name for Genoa comes from the Old French Jannes. The
earliest English reference to Genoa as Jean is in the Naval Accounts and
Inventories of the Reign of Henry VII from 1495.
In the 1850s Levi
Strauss, a German dry goods merchant living in San Francisco, was selling blue
jeans under the "Levi's" name to the mining communities of California. One of
Strauss's customers was Jacob Davis, a tailor who frequently purchased bolts of
cloth from the Levi Strauss & Co wholesale house. After one of Davis's customers kept purchasing cloth to reinforce torn pants, he had an idea to use copper rivets to reinforce the points of strain, such as on the pocket corners and at the base of the button fly. Davis did not have the required money to purchase a patent, so he wrote to Strauss suggesting that they both go into business together. After Strauss accepted Davis's offer, on May 20, 1873, the two men received patent #139,121, a patent for an "Improvement in Fastening
Pocket-Openings," from the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
5th October
is the ‘Lee National Denim Day’ - It is a single-day fundraiser created by Lee
Jeans to support the Women's Cancer Programs of the Entertainment Industry
Foundation. Every year, on the first Friday in October breast cancer awareness
month, people nationwide are asked to wear their jeans and donate $5 in support
of breast cancer research.
For more details visit
the following link
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_National_Denim_Day
Q) What is the origin of the word ‘Quarantine’?
A) Quarantine - Any forced stoppage of travel or communication on account of
malignant, contagious disease, on land or by sea.
It originates from the
French word quarante (=forty). Adding the suffix –aine to French numbers gives a
degree of roughness to the figure (like –ish in English), so quarantaine means
about forty. Originally when a ship arriving in port was suspected of being
infected with a malignant, contagious disease, its cargo and crew were obliged
to forego all contact with the shore for a period of around forty days. This
term came to be known as period of quarantine.
U.S. President John F.
Kennedy euphemistically referred to the U.S. Navy's interdiction of shipping en
route to Cuba during the Cuban missile crisis as a "quarantine" rather than a
blockade, because a quarantine is a legal act in peacetime, whereas a blockade
is defined as an act of aggression under the U.N. Charter.
Q) What is the originof the word ‘Biscuit’?
A) Biscuit - Small round bread leavened with baking-powder or soda.
The origin of the word
"biscuit" is from Latin via Middle French and means 'Bis + cuit' - “twice
cooked".
Biscotti are crisp
Italian cookies often containing nuts or flavored with anise. In many parts of
the world (particularly the United States) biscotti are considered an essential
part of the espresso bar experience.
Q)What is the origin of the word ‘cab or taxi cab’?
A) Cab - Small two-wheeled horse-drawn carriage; a car driven by a person whose job is to take passengers.
Cab is a shortened form
of cabriolet, which was a variety of horse drawn carriage. As this kind of
carriage was used frequently for public transportation the term was retained
even after the cabriolet was superseded by the hansom (A two-wheeled horse-drawn
covered carriage) and later, of course, hired cars.
Another origin states
that the word Cab is an old Italian term for goat (cabra in Spanish). The first
carriages "for public hire" bounced so much that they reminded people of goats
romping on a hillside.
Q) What is the origin of the word ‘Madras & Chennai’?
A) Two theories exist on how
Thus
Marina Beach in Chennai is the world’s second longest beach & spans across approximately 12 Km’s. Some of the famous name changes in
Some of the recent changes in Karnataka are
Q) What is the origin of the word ‘
A) This exclamation is from the Greek word heureka, which means ‘I have found it’.
Legend has it that Archimedes uttered this exclamation when he realized that objects placed in water displace an amount of water equal to their own volume.
Hiero II, tyrant of Syracuse, had supplied a goldsmith with gold to make a crown. But Hiero was not certain that the smith had used all the gold and so he asked Archimedes to test the crown. How to measure the volume of such an irregularly shaped object stumped Archimedes until one day, when climbing into his bath, he noticed the water displacement and realized that he could measure the volume of the crown through displacement.
[By dividing the object's weight by its volume, one could calculate its density, an important indicator of purity]
By the mid-18th century, the word was Anglicized and being used outside of direct references to Archimedes.
Q) What is the origin of the word ‘Red-handed’?
A) The adjective red-handed, meaning guilty, is a reference to having blood on one’s hands. The term comes from red hand a 15th century Scottish legal term meaning with clear evidence of guilt.
From a 1432 Scottish law:
If he may be overtaken he shall be put in secure restraints while the law be done on him...And if it is red hand it shall be done within that day.
The more modern form red-handed dates to the early 19th century, first appearing in Walter Scott’s 1819 Ivanhoe:
I did but tie one fellow, who was taken red-handed and in the fact, to the horns of a wild stag.
Some unverified origins are
a) Some historians believe the phrase originated between 800 and 900 B.C. During this era, people of the
b) Another possible origin is derived from the Japanese. The Japanese would brush the sap from poison ivy on their money. If the money was stolen, the thief would break out into a rash, thus they would be caught red handed.
c) Also a story goes by that the banks used to put dye bombs into the money bags which used to dye the robbers red.
Q) What is the origin of the word ‘in the limelight/limelight’?
A) Limelight – A lamp consisting of a flame directed at a cylinder of lime with a lens to concentrate the light; formerly used for stage lighting and in lighthouses before the era of electric lights. Limelights were also known as calcium lights.
Theatres also burned lime to create a strong spotlight effect, and hence the expression "in the limelight/limelight".
Dhoni and his team were/are under continuous limelight and awarded with many a great offers after they won the first ever ICC twenty twenty world cup 2007. This treatment meted out to only a particular sport (cricket) made the hockey(national sport of India) team and the Indian Olympic Association express their discontent and displeasure over the manner in which hockey players of the country were not given adequate support and not commended enough for their victories(though they had won the Asia Cup 2007). This made Mr. H.D.Kumaraswamy the honorable chief minister of Karnataka to take notice and gift RS 2 lakh each to the Karnataka hockey players who had participated in the
Q) What is the origin of the word ‘
A) In 490 BC, the legend of Pheidippides, a Greek soldier, who was sent from the town of Marathon (Battle field) to Athens, a distance of about 42 kms to announce that the Persians had been miraculously defeated in the Battle of Marathon. It is said that he ran the entire distance without stopping, but moments after proclaiming the message “Rejoice. We conquer” to the city he collapsed dead from exhaustion.
To re-create and commemorate the legendary run of pheidippides, this long distance foot race is introduced in Athens Olympics games in 1896.
à Youngest Ultra-Marathoner: Budhia Singh from
à Oldest Marathoner: Fauja Singh (94-year-young!) led a Marathon relay team in the
A) The name of the fruit was NARANJ in Sanskrit; the language spoken in ancient
A) The English word opportunity comes from the Latin phrase
ob portu.
In the days before modern harbors, ships had to wait till flood tide to make it into port. The Latin phrase “ob portu” referred to that moment in time when the tide would turn. The captain and crew would wait for that one moment, and they knew that if they missed it, they would have to wait for another tide to come in.
A) When the Spanish arrived in
The TL sound is common in the Aztec language but not in Spanish. The Spaniards mispronounced the drink CHOCOLATO. This drink was brought to
Research indicates that chocolate may be effective at preventing persistent coughing. The ingredient theobromine was found to be almost one third more effective than codeine, the leading cough medicine.
Dark chocolate, with its high cocoa content, is a rich source of the flavonoids epicatechin and gallic acid, which are thought to possess cardioprotective properties but again only in limited quantity.
A) This is a term in chess. It is from the Farsi language spoken in
The word SHAH means a "king" as in the last monarch (or SHAH) of
The word came via French (where the SH became a CH) and into English where the MA-TE (two syllables) became MATE (one syllable) to give CHECKMATE.
Viswanathan Anand an Indian ace in the chess arena has won the following awards Arjuna award in 1985, Padma Shri, National Citizens Award and Soviet Land Nehru Award in 1987, the inaugural Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award, India's highest sporting honour in the year 1991-1992, Padma Bhushan in 2000, Chess Oscar (1997, 1998, 2003 and 2004) and many more.
Some medical experts believe that the human appendix was used for digesting leaves as primates, over time we have eaten fewer vegetables and over the thousands of years that we have evolved, this organ has become smaller to make room for our stomach, thus having no absolute purpose.
The first calculators were abacuses, and were often constructed as a wooden frame with beads sliding on wires. Abacuses were in use centuries before the adoption of the written Arabic numerals system and are still used by some merchants and clerks in many places like
Malaria has infected humans for over 50,000 years, and is caused by the bite of a female mosquito of the Anopheles genus. The first effective treatment for malaria was the bark of cinchona tree, which contains quinine. Malaria causes about 400–900 million cases of fever and approximately one to three million deaths annually — this represents at least one death every 30 seconds.
The largest trivia contest is held in
Echt & Unfeigned are synonyms of genuine.
The "addict" (person with a bad habit) went to the "attic" (room right under the roof) and sent an "edict" (order or command) to the rest of the family to stay downstairs.
The earliest known use of the term "Assassination" (murder of a public figure by surprise attack by an assassin) is found in William Shakespeare's theatrical play Macbeth, written around the year 1601.
The expression stone broke refers to a craftsman's stone bench being broken if he failed to pay his debts. (Robert L. Shook, The Book of Why, 1983.)
Originally, the French military used a call that was used to warn of approaching enemies, and that call was a variant of the Old Italian call, "all'arme," which meant, "to arms!" So the next time your alarm clock goes off, you can think of it as telling you, "to arms!" and to attack the day with gusto!
The different types of typography are
b) Uppercase letters (AM, PM)
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