› added 10 years ago

327

TIL William Shakespeare invented the word swagger. In fact he invented over 1,700 common words that we use today, including addiction (Othello), bedazzled (The Taming of the Shrew), cold-blooded (King John), eyeball (The Tempest), and puking (As You Like It).

Read more grammarpartyblog.com

via reddit.com

oRKW7 TIL that Edna Parker (1893-2008), the oldest living human at the time, lived in the same nursing home, and at the same time as Sandra Allen (1955-2008), the tallest woman in the world. Allen was 7'7".
wLpxJ TIL of "Dogwood Winters" in which late April - early May cold snaps are common. Farmers would predict these by whether or not the Dogwood trees had bloomed, and use this to determine when it would be safe to plant their crops.
e0Ay5 TIL: The reason we say "o clock" is from the period when mechanical clocks and their sundial predecessors overlapped. To clarify which type of time you were giving you'd say, for example, "10 on the clock" which became "10 o' clock"
ADw17 TIL bowhead whales are the only baleen whales native to Arctic waters, and their thick triangular skulls are designed to crack through ice.These whales are considered the longest living mammals and can live for 200+ yrs.Specific mutations in their DNA give these whales enhanced resistance to cancer.
d8EM9 TIL : Author HG Wells pretty much created the template for the modern day disaster movie with his 1897 short story "The Star". It tells of the Earths near miss with a meteor who's gravitational pull causes earthquakes, tidal waves, and the melting of the ice caps. Millions are killed.