Here are 25 random word facts for you:
1. Pupaphobia is the fear of dolls and puppets.
2. Cowards have been called chickens since the 14th century.
3. The distance between your thumb and the opposite side of your hand when it’s extended is called the shaftment.
4. In 16th century English, twirk (spelled with an E, not an I) meant “to twist the hairs of a moustache.”
5. Cluck-and-grunt was 1930s slang for ham and eggs.
6. An anepronym is a trade name that has come to be used generally in the language, like Kleenex, Jacuzzi or Coke.
7. On average, for every letter Q used in written English there will be 56 E‘s.
8. A compulsive desire to look at something that horrifies you — like a horror film or an injury — is called cacospectomania.
9. Counting on your fingers is called dactylonymy.
10. Hexagons were once called sexangles.
11. In 18th century English, a wobble-shop was a place where beer was sold without a license.
12. Toucans used to be called egg-suckers.
13. Velociraptor literally means “swift thief.”
14. The proper name for taking your shoes off is discalceation.
15. To metagrobolize someone is to utterly confuse them.
16. The words a, and, be, have, he, I, in, of, that, the and to make up 25% of all written English.
17. A group of dragonflies is called a dazzle.
18. A person’s headmark comprises all of the facial features and characteristics that make them recognizable as themselves.
19. The word comet comes from a Greek word meaning “long-haired star.”
20. An autohagiography is an autobiography that makes the subject appear better than they actually are.
21. The paddy-whack mentioned in the nursery rhyme “This Old Man” is a Victorian word for a severe beating.
22. Mediocre literally means “halfway up a mountain.”
23. In 18th century slang, “to play booty” meant “to play a game with the intention of losing.”
24. If you wrote out every number in the standard English counting system (one, two, three, four) in alphabetical order, no matter how high you counted the first number would always be eight. The second would always be eight billion.
25. The feeling of calmness or contentedness that follows a pleasant dream is called euneirophrenia.
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