Language »
The “X” in “Xmas” Doesn’t Take the “Christ” Out of “Christmas”
Myth: “Xmas” is a non-religious name / spelling for “Christmas”. It turns out, “Xmas” is not a non-religious version of “Christmas”. The “X” is actually indicating the Greek letter “Chi”, which is short for
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“Daylight Saving” Not “Daylight Savings”
It’s “daylight saving time”, not “daylight savings time”. “Daylight saving time” uses the present participle “saving” as an adjective, as in “labor saving device”. Daylight saving time was first used during WWI to conserve
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“Just Deserts” Not “Just Desserts”
The idiom used for the notion of someone “getting what’s coming to them”, whether good or bad, is actually “just deserts”, not “just desserts”. The misconception primarily stems from the fact that most people
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The Name “Hot Dog” Was Not Coined at a New York Giants Baseball Game
You’ll often hear that the name “hot dog” comes from a cartoon drawn by T.A. Dorgan during a New York Giants baseball game at the Polo Grounds around 1902-1906 (date varies depending on who’s
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The Color Orange Was Named After the Fruit, Not the Other Way Around
Before this happened, the English speaking world referred to the orange color as geoluhread, which literally translates to “yellow-red”. The word orange itself was introduced to English through the Spanish word “naranja”, which came
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When Adding a Second “PS” at the End of a Letter, It’s “PPS”, Not “PSS”.
This, of course, is because “PS” stands for “postscript”. This comes from the Latin “post scriptum” (sometimes written “postscriptum”), which translates to “written after”, or more to the point, “what comes after the writing”.
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It’s “I Could Not Care less”, Not “I Could Care Less”
It’s “I could not care less”, not “I could care less”. These two phrases are often used interchangeably when someone is referring to something that they don’t care about at all, even though the
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“Third World Country” Doesn’t Refer to the Relative Wealth or Technological Level of a Country
“Third World” country is not a country that simply is primitive, underdeveloped, or poor, as most people think. In fact, a third world country is actually just a country that is not considered a
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