› added 7 years ago

346

TIL the words “apron” and “napkin” were originally “napron” and “apkin” but the preceding indefinite articles (“an” and “a”) were so confusing to the ear that the words eventually just changed.

Read more wordsforless.com

via ift.tt

MeBE8 TIL in 2018, almost half of all fatalities from vehicle crashes were not wearing a seatbelt, 29% were driving impaired, and 27% were speeding related.
rnly TIL the engineer of the Kalka-Shimla Railway in India killed himself after miscalculation of where two halves of a tunnel would meet
kEgd TIL that the inventor of the polygraph, John Larson, hated it so much he called it “a Frankenstein’s monster, which I have spent over 40 years in combating.”
9YY8Q TIL English has at least 38 different ways to spell the vowel sound in "say". For example <eigh> (eight), <alf> (halfpenny) <au> (gauge) etc.
Kk04 TIL Richard Nixon changed the Secret Service’s uniforms to old-school European-style uniforms. The change was wildly mocked and was reversed after a couple weeks.