# 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:** 7
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2018, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-true-facts-you-ve-learned-recently/813266/121 "2018-05-02T14:49:11Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > 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. The word “blueprint” is dying out at the professional level and being replaced by the word “drawing,” which is now universally the term of art in pretty much any business. It’s kind of a shame, really. I hope “blueprint” holds on a little. ---
**Author:** ![Jeff\_Lichtman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jeff_lichtman/32/1531_2.png) [@Jeff\_Lichtman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jeff_Lichtman)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2018, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-true-facts-you-ve-learned-recently/813266/122 "2018-05-02T15:20:55Z")
“Blueprint” is still used in a metaphorical sense to mean “plan.” When I search the New York Times for the word I come up with the following: > [@](#): > > Opinion | A Blueprint for the Future of Food > > A Blueprint for Women’s Sports Success. But Can It Be Copied? > > Fix Lonzo Ball’s Shot? Here’s the Blueprint > > China’s Blueprint for Reaching Top Ranks of Soccer > > Blueprint for G.E.'s Future and Nafta Talks Resume > > A Blueprint for Misery I think this meaning is a lot more common than the original one. I hope it stays in the language long past the day when most people know what an actual blueprint is. ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2018, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-true-facts-you-ve-learned-recently/813266/123 "2018-05-02T15:52:58Z")
> [@Novelty\_Bobble](#): > > 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. Because nobody was using the word _theist_ for about 100 years after the word _atheist_ was being used. If are are no recorded uses of a word, can you really say it’s a word? There is a word _[anitpodes](https://www.google.com/search?q=Dictionary#dobs=antipodes)_, but does that mean that when that word was created there was automatically the word \*podes \*created? Well, no, because there is no such word as _podes_. ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2018, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-true-facts-you-ve-learned-recently/813266/124 "2018-05-02T16:05:07Z")
> [@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 think you are conflating the existence of a concept and the existence of a word. A word exists if people _use_ it to express the concept. _Agnatha_ is a (technical) word for a clade within _Chordata_. Whereas \*_Gnatha_ is (so far as I’m aware), not a word, technical or otherwise. Just as (per **x-ray vision** ) \*communicado is not a word in English. There’s a Wikipedia article, as always… > **[Unpaired word](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unpaired_word)** > > An unpaired word is one that, according to the usual rules of the language, would appear to have a related word but does not. Such words usually have a prefix or suffix that would imply that there is an antonym, with the prefix or suffix being absent or opposite. If the prefix or suffix is negative, such as 'dis-' or -'less', the word can be called an orphaned negative. > Unpaired words can be the result of one of the words falling out of popular usage, or can be created when only one word of a pa... Also - [https://pocketbookuk.com/2014/02/26/words-that-ought-to-have-opposites-but-dont/](https://pocketbookuk.com/2014/02/26/words-that-ought-to-have-opposites-but-dont/) > [@x-ray\_vision](#): > > 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_. And the timeline is semantically plausible, of course. Historically, a belief in some kind of god was pretty much universal, so a word “theist” to group all believers into a semantic category “non-atheists” might not have been useful (later, of course, theist took on a meaning more specific than non-atheist). The word atheist described a _notable_ feature at the time, so it seems quite plausible that it came into use first. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2018, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-true-facts-you-ve-learned-recently/813266/125 "2018-05-02T16:07:21Z")
Well, I’d grant you that _atheist_ was more commonly used before _theist_… > [@CookingWithGas](#): > > There is a word anitpodes, but does that mean that when that word was created there was automatically the word podes created? Well, no, because there is no such word as _podes_. That might be because podes like you don’t know it. (“If you can’t spot the pode at the poder table, then _you’re_ the pode.” – Babraham Maslow) ---
**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, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-true-facts-you-ve-learned-recently/813266/126 "2018-05-02T16:08:13Z")
> [@Riemann](#): > > There’s even a Wikipedia article! > > [Unpaired word - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unpaired_word) Thank for that. The word I wanted to use as an example was _nonchalant_ and it wasn’t coming to me. ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2018, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-true-facts-you-ve-learned-recently/813266/127 "2018-05-02T16:13:02Z")
Hmm. I seem to be coming up with a lot of controversial facts here. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2018, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-true-facts-you-ve-learned-recently/813266/128 "2018-05-02T16:14:05Z")
> [@Riemann](#): > > _Agnatha_ is a (technical) word for a clade within _Chordata_. (Paraphyletic, in fact. Not that it’s relevant to the topic at hand, but I’m a biologist, so I should get these things right. Maybe it is somewhat relevant, since it explains why \*Gnatha is not a phylogenetically useful word.) ---
**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, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-true-facts-you-ve-learned-recently/813266/129 "2018-05-02T16:18:45Z")
I am such a dolent man, I eptly work each day; My acts are all becilic, I’ve just ane things to say. My nerves are strung, my hair is kempt, I’m gusting and I’m span: I look with dain on everyone And am a pudent man. I travel cognito and make A delible impression: I overcome a slight chalance, With gruntled self-possession. My dignation would be great If I should digent be: I trust my vagance will bring An astrous life for me. ― Attributed to J. H. Parker (19th century) ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2018, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-true-facts-you-ve-learned-recently/813266/130 "2018-05-02T16:25:56Z")
The “unpaired words” article in Wikipedia includes an item worthy of the thread, I think: “Prepone” is apparently a word in Indian English (the opposite of postpone). ---
**Author:** ![CurtC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ce73a5/32.png) [@CurtC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CurtC)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2018, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-true-facts-you-ve-learned-recently/813266/131 "2018-05-02T16:38:47Z")
> [@Riemann](#): > > The “unpaired words” article in Wikipedia includes an item worthy of the thread, I think: > “Prepone” is apparently a word in Indian English (the opposite of postpone). Yes, I’ve heard Indians who live here use that word many times. I often tell them, in a good-natured way, that it’s not standard here, and they’re always very surprised by that. ---
**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, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-true-facts-you-ve-learned-recently/813266/132 "2018-05-02T16:47:50Z")
> [@x-ray\_vision](#): > > 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? which would be exactly the same problem you’d have with Atheist. Whatever come after the “A” (or “un”) surely must be an understood or defined concept? > [@](#): > > If I coined the word _incommunicado_, does the word _communicado_ now necessarily exist? That’s a borrowed word and yes the word “communicado” is a real word, it has to be otherwise the “in” part makes no sense. > [@](#): > > 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_. the definition is irrelevant. If the construction is using “a” as a greek-style prefix to mean “not” or “without” then whatever follows it has to represent what it is “not” or “without”. ---
**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, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-true-facts-you-ve-learned-recently/813266/133 "2018-05-02T16:52:01Z")
> [@CookingWithGas](#): > > There is a word _[anitpodes](https://www.google.com/search?q=Dictionary#dobs=antipodes)_, but does that mean that when that word was created there was automatically the word \*podes \*created? Well, no, because there is no such word as _podes_. It is a greek word is it not? and podes is the greek plural for feet. ---
**Author:** ![74westy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/74westy/32/3950_2.png) [@74westy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/74westy)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2018, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-true-facts-you-ve-learned-recently/813266/134 "2018-05-02T16:52:34Z")
> [@CookingWithGas](#): > > there is no such word as _podes_. Podes: a point on a sphere 360 degrees from another point on the sphere. ---
**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, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-true-facts-you-ve-learned-recently/813266/135 "2018-05-02T17:06:34Z")
> [@Novelty\_Bobble](#): > > which would be exactly the same problem you’d have with Atheist. Whatever come after the “A” (or “un”) surely must be an understood or defined concept? No. You said this: _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._ How is coining a word and defining it as “a substance that cannot be spaffed” helpful to anyone when _spaffed_ is not a word? _Atheism_ became a word on it’s own borrowing from the French _athéisme_. No problem as with the your coining and defining of _unspaffable_. > [@](#): > > That’s a borrowed word and yes the word “communicado” is a real word, it has to be otherwise the “in” part makes no sense. What English dictionary has _communicado_ in it? It has to be? Does _chalant_ have to be a word? > [@](#): > > the definition is irrelevant. If the construction is using “a” as a greek-style prefix to mean “not” or “without” then whatever follows it has to represent what it is “not” or “without”. We’re not talking about representing; we’re talking about the order of existence of words. Again, _atheism_ came from the French _athéisme_, not from adding _a_ to an existing English word. ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2018, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-true-facts-you-ve-learned-recently/813266/136 "2018-05-02T17:17:23Z")
> [@Novelty\_Bobble](#): > > …Whatever come after the “A” (or “un”) surely must be an understood or defined concept? … > [@Riemann](#): > > I think you are conflating the existence of a concept and the existence of a word. A word exists if people _use_ it to express the concept. Again, a concept is not a word. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2018, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-true-facts-you-ve-learned-recently/813266/137 "2018-05-02T17:18:33Z")
How many of the honest true facts listed here are actually true? This thread reminds me of the Peanuts cartoon where Lucy was impressing Linus with her repertoire of “little know facts”, such as the fact cows have to be brought in from the fields each day, lest they get “pasturized”. When Charlie Brown asked her how, if these facts were so little known, did she know them, she replied, “I make 'em up.” ---
**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, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-true-facts-you-ve-learned-recently/813266/138 "2018-05-02T17:21:20Z")
> [@74westy](#): > > Podes: a point on a sphere 360 degrees from another point on the sphere. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2018, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-true-facts-you-ve-learned-recently/813266/139 "2018-05-02T18:51:39Z")
> [@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. > [@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. > [@Novelty\_Bobble](#): > > 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. In the case of atheist, the negation intended by the “a-” prefix is not of “theist,” a person who believes in god, but of “the[os],” god. An atheist is an athe[os]-ist, not an a-theist. Understanding what that meant before the word “theist” came into use some time later only required understanding the Greek root _theos_, not the meaning of the non-existent word “theist.” Here’s a similar case. Starting in the early 1600s, the word “inflammable” meant “capable of being easily ignited and of burning quickly,” and yet the word “flammable” (paradoxically meaning the same thing) did not come into being for another 200 years. > [@Merriam-Webster](#): > > We get inflammable from the Latin verb inflammare, which combines flammare (“to catch fire”) with a Latin prefix in-, which means “to cause to.” Inflammable came into English in the early 1600s. > > Things were fine until 1813, when a scholar translating a Latin text coined the English word flammable from the Latin flammare, and now we had a problem: two words that look like antonyms but are actually synonyms. There has been confusion between the two words ever since. [Cite](https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/flammable-or-inflammable). ---
**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, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-true-facts-you-ve-learned-recently/813266/140 "2018-05-02T19:23:39Z")
> [@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/) Sigh. But at least it was not an egg before Carroll. Please don’t tell me Thomas Jefferson’s sheep didn’t kill anyone. I get too much mileage with that in Charlottesville for it to be false. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-true-facts-you-ve-learned-recently/813266.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-true-facts-you-ve-learned-recently/813266.md?page=8)