Amazing facts website


Amazing Facts archive


Entries Comments



Korea
  • Babies born in Korea are automatically one year old
  • South Korea has a special day to celebrate their Alphabet called Hangul on October 9th
  • Korea was originally spelt Corea
  • Seoul in South Korea is literally translated to mean “capital”

Mexico
  • The Mayans had a weapon called the “hornet bomb” which was an actual hornet’s nest thrown at enemies
  • In ancient Mexico (Tenochtitlan), a ritual ball game known as tlachtli was often played in which the losers were sacrificied to the Gods
  • Many English words came from the Mexicans: tomatoes, chocolate and avocado
  • Mexico introduced chocolate, corn and chilli to the world. The Aztecs loved chocholate
  • The Chihuahua was named after a Mexican state
  • Texas was actually once a Mexican state
  • The official name of Mexico is Estados Unidos Mexicanos (United Mexican States

advertisement
  • Some 30 sec adverts shown during the American NFL Superbowl cost more than full length feature films
  • Some advertisements have funny translations in Chinese:
  • A&W’s “That frosty mug sensation” became “Feel like your face is frozen”
  • American Express’ “Don’t leave home without it” became “Stay home with it”
  • Budweiser’s “When you say Budweiser, you’ve said it all” became “After Budweiser, you will not be able to speak”
  • Camel’s “I’d walk a mile for a Camel” translated as “A camel asked me to walk two kilometers”
  • KFC’s “Finger Licking Good” became “Tastes like human fingers”
  • Nike’s “Just do it” translates as “Have Sex!”
  • and finally, Wheaties’ “Breakfast of Champions” is “Breakfast of Mao”

words, origin
  • The word avocado comes from the Spanish word, aguacate, which in turn is derived from the Aztec word ahuacatl, meaning testicle
  • Vanilla derives its name from the Latin word for vagina
  • Gymnasium comes from the Greek word gymnazein which means to “exercise naked.”

words
  • The words racecar, kayak, level and Navy Van are the same whether they are read left to right or right to left, and these are called palindromes. The longest palindromes in the dictionary however are the words ‘Malayalam”rotavator’ ‘redivider’. Now check these out. ‘A man a plan a canal panama’. ‘Ten animals i slam in a net’thanx seraph, mashkur, hannah b, marky and jay, jelly baby king
  • “Almost” is the longest word in alphabetical order

tongue twisters
  • The “sixth sick sheik’s sixth sheep’s sick” is said to be the toughest tongue twister in the English language.(honestly, who think these things up?)

fuck
  • Bows and arrows used to be meade from the yew tree in the 1500s, so when an arrow was shot it was called “plucking the yew.” At the Battle of Agincort (once again, not sure), the French party was going to capture the English and cut of their middle fingers so they couldn’t pluck the yew. However, the English people heard of their plan and weren’t captured. So, they taunted the french people by waving their middle fingers and saysing “Look, we can still pluck yew!” So “pluck yew” was a phrase used to taunt french people, until it evolved to “fuck you” and the hand gesture was associated with… well, we all know what it’s supposed to look like. Anyway, that’s how my history teacher heard it. Thanx Superchick
  • ‘fuck’ comes from the sentence, “Fornication Under Consent of the King” which was what they called a whore house back then. This came from a facts book i read. Honest
  • ‘fuck’ comes from ‘fichen’, German for “to strike.”
  • Webster’s says that it most likely comes from fokken, “to breed (cattle).” Thanx Jon C
  • The word “FUCK” comes from the olden days. When a person was caught being unfaithful, they were made to wear a sign saying “FUCK”, it stood for “For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge”. Thanx Connor B.
  • The word fuck came from WW 1 ,the german airplane manafactuar foccas was the cause, the british use the word as a swear. Thanx Mick Q

Canadian dollar
  • On the old Canadian 2 dollar bill,the flag flying over the Parliament Building is NOT an American flag.Thanx Doug B. and Dwain
  • Canada actually comes from the word ‘Kanata’, a Huron or Iroquois word for village, and Canada is a ‘big village’

Chinese
  • There are more than 40,000 characters in Chinese script. (I could have sworn it was more.)