# Tell us an interesting random fact you stumbled across (Part 2) **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 25, 2024, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785 "2024-07-25T15:06:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 167
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2025, 6:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/3321 "2025-10-12T06:50:01Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > However, that clockwork automaton was a male and a woman was his victim, because the inventor forgot to give the automaton an off switch. So it’s a robot update on Hans Christian Andersen’s _Red Shoes?_ ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2025, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/3322 "2025-10-12T17:57:04Z")
Only in a kinda, sorta way. Anderson’s tale is of a woman punished for her pride. No partner is involved. And she is absolved in the end, although she does die and then taken to heaven. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2025, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/3323 "2025-10-12T19:35:19Z")
Were the forced-dancing shoes in the Porky Pig cartoon “The Wearing of the Grin” inspired by the Andersen tale or is it a trope with more than one folklore source? ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2025, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/3324 "2025-10-12T19:56:34Z")
It is kind of a trope in fairy tales. The first I can think of is the original telling of “Snow White” by the brothers Grimm, where the evil queen, on Snow White’s and the Prince’s wedding, is forced to put on red hot iron shoes and dances herself to death. That part usually is skipped in Disney’s and other retellings. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2025, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/3325 "2025-10-12T20:00:21Z")
> [@Lumpy](#): > > Were the forced-dancing shoes in the Porky Pig cartoon “The Wearing of the Grin” inspired by the Andersen tale or is it a trope with more than one folklore source? A film version of _The Red Shoes_ came out just a couple years before the cartoon, so it’s a fairly safe bet that’s where the idea came from. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2025, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/3326 "2025-10-12T20:31:54Z")
Do you know about the dancing plague of 1518?: > **[Dancing plague of 1518](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dancing_plague_of_1518)** > > The dancing plague of 1518, or dance epidemic of 1518 (French: Épidémie dansante de 1518; German: Straßburger Tanzwut), was a case of dancing mania that occurred in Strasbourg, Alsace (modern-day France), in the Holy Roman Empire from July 1518 to September 1518. Somewhere between 50 and 400 people took to dancing for weeks. There are many theories behind the phenomenon, the most popular being stress-induced mass hysteria, suggested by John Waller. Other theories include ergot poisoning. Th The o... Note that there were other such things. ---
**Author:** ![markn\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2025, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/3327 "2025-10-13T00:34:29Z")
A lot of modern retellings of fairy tales are sanitized from the original version. For instance, most modern versions of _Cinderella_ omit the self-mutilation that is part of the Grimm brothers’ version. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2025, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/3328 "2025-10-13T00:40:28Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > Do you know about the dancing plague of 1518?: > > [Dancing plague of 1518 - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dancing_plague_of_1518) That article specifically mentions **red shoes** as an attempted cure for the mania; I’m now certain Andersen was referencing this. ---
**Author:** ![Treppenwitz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treppenwitz/32/3445_2.png) [@Treppenwitz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Treppenwitz)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2025, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/3329 "2025-10-13T13:15:03Z")
I recently learned that, as well as being a name, Ruth is a word - [meaning empathy (or remorse)](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ruth). So I guess it’s one of those women’s names which derive from a desirable (or desired) personality trait, like Constance or Prudence. Of course, if you don’t have ruth, that makes you ruthless. j ETA: od course, this is complicated by it also being a biblical name. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2025, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/3330 "2025-10-13T14:25:53Z")
(misread previous, n.m.) ---
**Author:** ![scudsucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scudsucker/32/14101_2.png) [@scudsucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scudsucker)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2025, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/3331 "2025-10-13T14:54:05Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > Do you know about the dancing plague of 1518?: To be fair, I have danced quite a few days - with some sleep breaks - under the influence of the ergot related triptamine lysergic acid diethylamide for several days, around 8 to 24 hours at a time. Short breaks, like 2 to 4 hours. ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2025, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/3332 "2025-10-13T15:43:58Z")
> [@Treppenwitz](#): > > Ruth is a word - [meaning empathy (or remorse)](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ruth). English _rue_ is to _ruth_ as _true_ is to _truth_. Only that _ruth_ has essentially left the modern language. ---
**Author:** ![scudsucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scudsucker/32/14101_2.png) [@scudsucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scudsucker)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2025, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/3333 "2025-10-13T16:18:52Z")
I kissed a girl named Ruth about 25 years ago. But we also have ruthless and ruthful in English, the word is not gone. Also to the point of your post, I rue the day that these words leave the language ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2025, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/3334 "2025-10-13T16:52:37Z")
The origin of the two words pronounced and spelled “ruth” are different. Ruth is a name in the Hebrew Bible and hence in the Christian Old Testament. There’s a book in them called “The Book of Ruth”, since it’s about a woman named Ruth who is (according to the book) an ancestor of King David, for instance. It started to become a common name among Christians in the Europe at the time of the Protestant Reformation. Before then it was already a common name among Jews there. It peaked as a common name in the U.S. in the early twentieth century. The word “ruth” goes back to Old English and even further back to at least the Old Germanic branch of Proto-Indoeuropean. All those word mentioned - rue, ruthless, etc. - come from the same root. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2025, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/3335 "2025-10-13T18:03:26Z")
“Rutherford” is apparently related to neither, being derived from Old English/ Scottish for a cattle ford. ---
**Author:** ![Pardel-Lux](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pardel-lux/32/20182_2.png) [@Pardel-Lux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pardel-Lux)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2025, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/3336 "2025-10-13T18:12:16Z")
Ruthenium, atomic number 44, is named after Ruthenia, the old Latin name of Russia. I am sure that Russia is not named after anything related to empathy. And remorse? Hm… no. Not really. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2025, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/3337 "2025-10-13T18:18:41Z")
That would be from the Nordic Rus tribe, probably from the word for “rowers” (think Vikings). ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2025, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/3338 "2025-10-13T18:56:41Z")
The Hebrew spelling, and thence, pronunciation, of the Anglicized “Ruth” looks a little less similar to the English word. ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2025, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/3339 "2025-10-13T19:19:58Z")
**רוּת** is close to English “root”, isn’t it (acknowledging that the “r” is different in Hebrew)? @Alessan ? @Babale ? Also saw this in the Wiktionary entry for “Ruth” and thought it interesting: > ### Interjection > > **רוּת** [•](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Wiktionary:Hebrew_transliteration) (rut) > > 1. _(radio telecommunications, especially military)_ [roger](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/roger#English) ---
**Author:** ![Pardel-Lux](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pardel-lux/32/20182_2.png) [@Pardel-Lux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pardel-Lux)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2025, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/3340 "2025-10-13T19:24:43Z")
Therefore the name Ruthenia is completely artificial, made up Latin and has nothing to do with rowers, rowing or oars. For instance, “the rowers rowed with oars” would be in Latin: _remiges remis remigabant_ (as per the internet, my Latin is not so good). I see no way to get to Ruthenia from there via the usual vocal and consonant shifts. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785.md?page=166) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785.md?page=168)