# Weird (true!) facts you’ve learned recently **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 28, 2018, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-true-facts-you-ve-learned-recently/813266 "2018-04-28T15:33:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![stevenjklein](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7cd45c/32.png) [@stevenjklein](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stevenjklein)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2018, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-true-facts-you-ve-learned-recently/813266/101 "2018-05-01T22:23:35Z")
> [@FatBaldGuy](#): > > 90% of the things you read on the internet are false. > – Abraham Lincoln Ha, I know that one’s wrong. The correct version: “Most of the quotations you read on the internet are wrongly attributed.” — Abraham Lincoln (How do I know it’s true? I saw it on his website!) ---
**Author:** ![Novelty\_Bobble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Novelty\_Bobble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Novelty_Bobble)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2018, 7:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-true-facts-you-ve-learned-recently/813266/102 "2018-05-02T07:02:31Z")
> [@CookingWithGas](#): > > Language doesn’t work like that. The word “liaise” came after “liaison”, “lase” came after “laser”, and “surveil” came after “surveillance.” Sure, but due to its construction, in order for the word “atheist” to work and have meaning you have to invent the word “theist” at exactly the same time. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2018, 7:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-true-facts-you-ve-learned-recently/813266/103 "2018-05-02T07:09:00Z")
> [@CookingWithGas](#): > > Language doesn’t work like that. The word “liaise” came after “liaison”, “lase” came after “laser”, and “surveil” came after “surveillance.” That’s called “back formation”. “Pea” was derived from “pease” (as in pease porridge hot), in the same manner; “pease” was a non-plural mass noun in the same way as “oatmeal”. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2018, 7:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-true-facts-you-ve-learned-recently/813266/104 "2018-05-02T07:14:23Z")
> [@Novelty\_Bobble](#): > > Sure, but due to its construction, in order for the word “atheist” to work and have meaning you have to invent the word “theist” at exactly the same time. Not necessarily. If you’re a theologian who writes about these things, and you got your education in the Western world, you almost certainly would have a working knowledge of Greek, given that language’s great importance in the early history of Christianity, and you could easily coin the word “atheist” using the Greek root for “god” and the prefix meaning “without”. Zoologists were perfectly capable of inventing the word “agnatha” (jawless swimming vertebrates) without already having the word “gnatha”. ---
**Author:** ![Biotop](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biotop/32/321_2.png) [@Biotop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biotop)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2018, 7:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-true-facts-you-ve-learned-recently/813266/105 "2018-05-02T07:28:55Z")
I used this in a “53 bicycle” puzzle recently: [Humpty Dumpty was not an egg. It was a cannon.](http://knowledgenuts.com/2014/01/08/humpty-dumpty-was-a-cannon-not-an-egg/) ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2018, 8:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-true-facts-you-ve-learned-recently/813266/106 "2018-05-02T08:00:21Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > For fun linguistic facts; linguists don’t know where the following words came from: > > Bird > Dog > Kick “Kick” may have come from a [Scandinavian (presumably Danish) word](https://www.etymonline.com/word/kick)meaning to bend backwards or bend at the knee. This seems plausible given that English has the word “kick” at all while German doesn’t. (In that language, the cognate to “tread” is used to denote the transitive verb “kick”, and otherwise it means about the same thing as “tread” in English.) The meaning of the proposed Danish cognate is certainly different, but obviously still thematically similar (if that’s the correct way of putting it). ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2018, 8:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-true-facts-you-ve-learned-recently/813266/107 "2018-05-02T08:59:56Z")
> [@Novelty\_Bobble](#): > > Sure, but due to its construction, in order for the word “atheist” to work and have meaning you have to invent the word “theist” at exactly the same time. The work “telephone” came before the word “phone”, didn’t it? ---
**Author:** ![Novelty\_Bobble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Novelty\_Bobble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Novelty_Bobble)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2018, 12:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-true-facts-you-ve-learned-recently/813266/108 "2018-05-02T12:02:58Z")
> [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](#): > > Zoologists were perfectly capable of inventing the word “agnatha” (jawless swimming vertebrates) without already having the word “gnatha”. I’m not claiming that they have to have the word beforehand, merely that at the point of coining the word “agnatha” they are also creating the word “gnatha” _at the same time_. If I coin the word unspaffable, and claim that it means a substance that cannot be spaffed, In order for the word to have meaning I have, necessarily, at the very same instant, created the word spaffable. ---
**Author:** ![Novelty\_Bobble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Novelty\_Bobble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Novelty_Bobble)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2018, 12:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-true-facts-you-ve-learned-recently/813266/109 "2018-05-02T12:05:29Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > The work “telephone” came before the word “phone”, didn’t it? no, “phone” is from the ancient Greek meaning voice or sound. ---
**Author:** ![GreenWyvern](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/greenwyvern/32/2834_2.png) [@GreenWyvern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenWyvern)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2018, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-true-facts-you-ve-learned-recently/813266/110 "2018-05-02T13:08:51Z")
> [@Biotop](#): > > I used this in a “53 bicycle” puzzle recently: > > [Humpty Dumpty was not an egg. It was a cannon.](http://knowledgenuts.com/2014/01/08/humpty-dumpty-was-a-cannon-not-an-egg/) Debunking this idea: > **[Putting the “dump” in Humpty Dumpty](https://bshistorian.wordpress.com/2008/10/11/putting-the-dump-in-humpty-dumpty/)** > > Making up fairy stories about Humpty Humpty Dumpty was NOT a Civil War cannon in Colchester. In fact, the rhyme doesn’t even have such a specific historical basis. In all likelihood, none of … ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2018, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-true-facts-you-ve-learned-recently/813266/111 "2018-05-02T13:12:21Z")
> [@Novelty\_Bobble](#): > > I’m not claiming that they have to have the word beforehand, merely that at the point of coining the word “agnatha” they are also creating the word “gnatha” _at the same time_. > > If I coin the word unspaffable, and claim that it means a substance that cannot be spaffed, In order for the word to have meaning I have, necessarily, at the very same instant, created the word spaffable. I disagree with you (and agree with Spectre). This hinges on what one means by “creating a word” — but I think the more useful interpretations of this phrase involve more than what you are suggesting. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2018, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-true-facts-you-ve-learned-recently/813266/112 "2018-05-02T13:14:11Z")
> [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](#): > > “Kick” may have come from a [Scandinavian (presumably Danish) word](https://www.etymonline.com/word/kick)meaning to bend backwards or bend at the knee. This seems plausible given that English has the word “kick” at all while German doesn’t. (In that language, the cognate to “tread” is used to denote the transitive verb “kick”, and otherwise it means about the same thing as “tread” in English.) > > The meaning of the proposed Danish cognate is certainly different, but obviously still thematically similar (if that’s the correct way of putting it). In post #37, I referred to the same thing, but going deeper in time: “It seems that with “kick” experts can at least make an educated guess, that it’s from the same Indo European root (meaning “to sprout” or “jut out”) that gave us “chit” and “scion.”” ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2018, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-true-facts-you-ve-learned-recently/813266/113 "2018-05-02T13:48:36Z")
One that I discovered a few years ago but I’ve had lots of fun explaining to engineers whose first language isn’t English is the origin of “blueprint”. To us, that word just Doesn’t Make Sense; often, our names for those things are similar to English “plan” and would mean “flat drawing”, making the English “plan” a false friend. Blueprint comes from a [specific reproduction technique](https://www.britannica.com/technology/blueprint) which was popular in some countries but unknown in others. Knowing the origin of that “nonsense” word makes it a lot easier to recall it and avoid the false friend, which helps in those international meetings. ---
**Author:** ![Novelty\_Bobble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Novelty\_Bobble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Novelty_Bobble)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2018, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-true-facts-you-ve-learned-recently/813266/114 "2018-05-02T13:49:35Z")
> [@JKellyMap](#): > > I disagree with you (and agree with Spectre). This hinges on what one means by “creating a word” — but I think the more useful interpretations of this phrase involve more than what you are suggesting. You are free to disagree of course but I can’t grasp how one can construct a word like “atheist” without also the word “theist” coming into being at exactly the same moment. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2018, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-true-facts-you-ve-learned-recently/813266/115 "2018-05-02T13:50:47Z")
Theist has a specific meaning which isn’t the exact opposite of atheist. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2018, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-true-facts-you-ve-learned-recently/813266/116 "2018-05-02T14:25:40Z")
> [@Clothahump](#): > > Simon Whistler has a YouTube channel called [Today I Found Out](https://www.youtube.com/user/TodayIFoundOut). Chock full of interesting little tidbits. Little known facts: He doesn’t write his own material (the authors are mentioned in the closing credits) and he works out of Prague. > [@FatBaldGuy](#): > > 90% of the things you read on the internet are false. > – Abraham Lincoln I thought it was said by Mark Twain, but it’s a little known fact that those two stole each others material all the time. > [@GreenWyvern](#): > > Debunking this idea: > > [Putting the “dump” in Humpty Dumpty – The BS Historian](https://bshistorian.wordpress.com/2008/10/11/putting-the-dump-in-humpty-dumpty/) With a Straight Dope shoutout! > [@](#): > > If you do take a liking to a particular story – check it with the Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes, as well as Snopes and the Straight Dope websites. ---
**Author:** ![Novelty\_Bobble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Novelty\_Bobble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Novelty_Bobble)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2018, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-true-facts-you-ve-learned-recently/813266/117 "2018-05-02T14:27:54Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > Theist has a specific meaning which isn’t the exact opposite of atheist. Just like having zero money is not exactly the opposite of rich (being heavily in debt would be nearer the mark) But that doesn’t really matter. The definition of words change over time and I don’t think anyone was quibbling about that so let’s not go down that rabbit-hole as it wasn’t the point I was making (hence why I created the abstract word “unspaffable”) But I think my point still stands, I certainly haven’t heard a good rebuttal to it, that the very latest that the word “theist” was created was the point at which “atheist” was created. It may not have existed as a concept or a word before that time but its existence is implicit and necessary in the construction and meaning of “atheist” ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2018, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-true-facts-you-ve-learned-recently/813266/118 "2018-05-02T14:31:32Z")
> [@Novelty\_Bobble](#): > > no, “phone” is from the ancient Greek meaning voice or sound. Was the word “phone” used in English before the word “telephone”? ---
**Author:** ![x-ray\_vision](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/x-ray_vision/32/351_2.png) [@x-ray\_vision](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/x-ray_vision)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2018, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-true-facts-you-ve-learned-recently/813266/119 "2018-05-02T14:39:08Z")
> [@Novelty\_Bobble](#): > > I’m not claiming that they have to have the word beforehand, merely that at the point of coining the word “agnatha” they are also creating the word “gnatha” _at the same time_. > > If I coin the word unspaffable, and claim that it means a substance that cannot be spaffed, In order for the word to have meaning I have, necessarily, at the very same instant, created the word spaffable. If you coined a word starting with “un” and defined it by using the part of the word that comes after that which you also just termed, how is anyone going to know what the definition of your word is? If I coined the word _incommunicado_, does the word _communicado_ now necessarily exist? You’re coming to the erroneous conclusion that _atheist_ was being defined as _one who isn’t a theist_, rather than _one who denies the existence of gods_. If no one is using _theist_ as a word until many years later, then _atheist_ predates _theist_. ---
**Author:** ![x-ray\_vision](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/x-ray_vision/32/351_2.png) [@x-ray\_vision](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/x-ray_vision)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2018, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-true-facts-you-ve-learned-recently/813266/120 "2018-05-02T14:44:33Z")
> [@Novelty\_Bobble](#): > > It may not have existed as a concept or a word before that time but its existence is implicit and necessary in the construction and meaning of “atheist” > [@](#): > > The term atheism was derived from the French athéisme,[136] and appears in English about 1587.[137] > **[Atheism | Etymology](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atheism#Etymology)** > > In early ancient Greek, the adjective átheos (ἄθεος, from the privative ἀ- + θεός "god") meant "godless". It was first used as a term of censure roughly meaning "ungodly" or "impious". In the 5th century BCE, the word began to indicate more deliberate and active godlessness in the sense of "severing relations with the gods" or "denying the gods". The term ἀσεβής (asebēs) then came to be applied against those who impiously denied or disrespected the local gods, even if they believed in other gods.... Not necessary in the construction or meaning. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-true-facts-you-ve-learned-recently/813266.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-true-facts-you-ve-learned-recently/813266.md?page=7)