› added 12 years ago

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TIL that in Latin, the word for a “woman that earns” also means “prostitute”.

Read more wiktionary.org

via reddit.com

JYBlm TIL that a Russell Crowe commissioned script for Gladiator 2 would have seen a resurrected Maximus appearing in World War 2 and the Vietnam War, and would have ended with him in a suit and tie at the modern-day Pentagon.
PYlZZ TIL in 1840's New York, a man would walk up to strangers, acting as an old acquaintance. Gaining their trust, he asked, "Have you the confidence to trust me with your watch until tomorrow?" He would never return. When arrested, he was dubbed the "Confidence Man", the origin of the term "Con Man".
Yb9G TIL in 2003 a herd of elephants encircled a camp of antelope hunters in Empangani, South Africa. The 11 elephants surrounded the enclosure keeping the hunters at bay, while the matriarch used her trunk to unhook the gates of the captured antelope, allowing them to run free.
AgZa TIL to see a lunar rainbow or ‘moonbow’, the moon must not only be full, it also has to be less than 42 degrees in the sky, within 2 to 3 hours before sunrise, and of course, there must be rain falling exactly opposite the moon at that precise moment.
VM4jp TIL The 1933 worlds fair began by focusing the light from only the 37 light year distant star Arcturus onto photoelectric cells using telescopes. The resulting current switched on the floodlights at the exposition grounds.