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TIL the earliest use of the sexual term “69” was described in the 1790’s French publication the “Whore’s Catechisms”

by whatilearned June 2, 2023, 6:08 am

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TIL in 2018, the term “Ass-Clown” was added into Webster’s Dictionary, crediting Mike Judge as the screenwriter behind Office Space for coining it

by whatilearned May 24, 2023, 7:21 am

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TIL term “wake” originated because unknown diseases had plagued the Irish countryside causing people to appear as if they had died. As the family began to mourn, they would awaken. For this reason, the body is waked in the deceased’s home for at least one night.

by whatilearned May 20, 2023, 11:53 pm

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TIL that MLB Hall of Famer Gary Carter invented the “f-bomb” term in a 1988 Newsday story. That term would later be published in the Webster dictionary in 2012 crediting Carter for its first recorded use.

by whatilearned May 14, 2023, 8:39 pm

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TIL: The term “Wi-Fi” doesn’t actually stand for anything. It was coined in 1999 by a branding company as a consumer-friendly alternative to its technical designation, IEEE 802.11b Direct Sequence.

by whatilearned May 14, 2023, 4:50 pm

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TIL that the term ‘spinster’ derives from the profession of spinning and threading yarn in the 1300s, one of the few jobs available to lower-status, unmarried women — and this term carried no stigma initially

by whatilearned May 14, 2023, 12:08 pm

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TIL the term ‘Gypsy’ for Romani people likely arose from perception that they were ‘Egyptians’, evidence suggests most Romani originally came from India

by whatilearned May 9, 2023, 6:31 pm

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TIL where the word “Gerrymander” comes from. The 1812 Massachusetts Congress redrew the state districts to give their party electoral advantage, which Gov. Elbridge Gerry signed into law. A local paper compared the shape of one district to a salamander, coining the term “Gerry-mander”, which stuck.

by whatilearned May 9, 2023, 4:25 pm

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“Homophobic”? I prefer the term normal

by CopyPastaArchive May 8, 2023, 6:46 am

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TIL that Europeans starting using the term “Aztec” to refer to the people who lived around the city of Tenochtitlan, but that’s not what they called themselves. They referred to themselves as the Mexica.

by whatilearned May 5, 2023, 10:25 pm

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TIL The term “dive bar” came from when kitchens changed from using wood fired ovens in basements to gas or coal, and were left with empty spaces beneath the restaurant. These dingy spaces were then used as bars, and patrons began saying they were “diving down” for a drink.

by whatilearned May 4, 2023, 8:23 pm

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TIL Unobtainium was not first referenced in Avatar (2009), actually dates back to the 1950s as a term for “unusual or costly materials”

by whatilearned May 4, 2023, 12:55 am

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