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[FONT=comic sans ms,sans-serif]# 32.Assassin.

A murderous sect of religious fanatics terrorized the Middle East for over 200 years.The killed mercilessly under the influence of hallucination caused by some drugs.

The drug was called Hashish. The the users of Hashish were named as Hashshishin .This race was completely wiped out by Moguls in the 13 Th century but the Anglicized version of that 'Assassin' lives on![/FONT]
 

One of the meanings of Assassin as given in the dictionary - one of an order of Muslim fanatics,

active in Persia and Syria from about 1090 to 1272, whose chief object was to assassinate Crusaders.

Scary, indeed! :fear:

assassins-creed-2.jpg


Picture courtesy: Google images
 
Last edited:
Dictionary has given the meaning concisely.

Two hundred years, Middle East, Religious Fanatics.

I once wrote about how people used to spread their religion with sword in one

hand and their gospel in the other!
 
[FONT=comic sans ms,sans-serif]# 33. BOOZE.

The Dutch used a word to denote excessive drinking 'buizen' By the 16Th Century, 'Buizing' had been adopted in English. Later it became a slang for any alcoholic drink and the spelling got changed to from buizing to boozing!
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[FONT=comic sans ms,sans-serif] # 34.BOUDOIR.

A well bred young lady who was off-mood and sulking, was sent to her room to get over the sulks So Boudoir the French word meaning 'to pout' was used to denote the room. It was actually a 'pouting' room![/FONT]
pout.gif
 
[FONT=comic sans ms,sans-serif]# 35. BOYCOTT.

Captain Charles Cunningham Boycott was an agent for a land lord in Ireland,in the 19Th Century. When the landlords tried to impose heavy taxes on their tenants, the rebel leaders advised the tenants to isolate the greedy land owners like the leper in the past!

Boycott became the first victim of this excommunication from the rest of the society.The lives of his family members was made so difficult by the non cooperation of the others that soon the entire family had to flee to England.

The name of Captain Boycott became a part of English language meaning "refuse social or commercial relations with a person or nation by common consent and refusing to handle his goods."[/FONT]
 
[FONT=comic sans ms,sans-serif]# 36.CANARD.

Canard is a preposterous hoax. Canard means a duck in French. What is the connection between a hoax and a duck?

Egide Cornelissen-a Belgian journalist- reported an unusual experiment conducted by him in the early 19Th Century with 20 ducks.

He claimed that he roasted a duck and fed it to the remaining 19 ducks. The next day he roasted another duck and fed it to the remaining 18 ducks. This went of until one duck was left alive which had eaten all his 19 companions!

This story got wide publicity in Europe as well as America. Later the journalist admitted that he had never conducted such an experiment and the story was a product of his fertile imagination.

Since then word Canard itself denotes a large scale hoax.
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Rumors can also become HOAX! Copy pasting for the sake of those who do not read my threads!!

ஆயிரம் காக்கைகள்!

Crows.jpg


ஒருவன் நண்பனிடம் வேகமாக ஓடி வந்து,
'ஒரு அதிசயம் தெரியுமா?', எனக் கேட்டான்!

தப்பாது உற்சாகம் அவனைத் தொற்றிவிட,
'இப்போதே விஷயத்தைக் கூறு', என்றான்!

'அடுத்து உள்ள ஊரில், ஆயிரம் காக்கைகளை
எடுத்தானாம் ஒருவன், வாய் வழியாக!' எனச்

சொல்ல, மிகவும் அதிர்ந்தவன் வினவினான்,
சொன்னது யார் என்று; யாரெனத் தெரிந்ததும்,

அவனிடம் சென்று விசாரிக்க, அவனோ, 'நான்
அவனிடம் சொன்னது நூறு காக்கைகளே!' என,

அந்த விஷயம் கூறியவனைத் தேடிச் செல்ல,
'இந்த விஷயம் நான் சொல்லவில்லை; நான்

ஒரு காக்கை என்றுதானே கூறினேன்', என்றிட,
ஒரு காக்கை என்றவனை, அவன் தேடிச் செல்ல,

'இது என்ன அநியாயம்! நான் சொன்னதே வேறு!
பொதுவாகக் கருப்பு நிறத்தில் வாயிலே வந்தது,

என்றுதானே சொன்னேன்', என்று தெளிவாக்க,
'ஒன்று மட்டும் கூறு; யார் இதைச் செய்தவன்?'

தொடுத்த வினாவுக்கு பதில் வந்ததும், விடாது
அடுத்ததாகக் காணச் சென்றான், வாயிலெடுத்த

பிருஹஸ்பதியை! நடந்ததைக் கேட்டு, சிரித்து,
'பிரமாதமாக ஒன்றும் நடக்கவே இல்லையே!

வயிறு கலக்கிச் சங்கடம் செய்தது, நேற்றைய
தயிரில் ஏதோ பூச்சியைக் கண்டதால்! நானும்

நண்பனிடம், வாயில் எடுப்பேனோ, என்னவோ,
என்றுதானே சொன்னேன்!' என்று விளக்கினான்!

:sick: . . . :drum: . . . :horn:
 
Dear Sis,

You LIKE the post when it appears in your thread and not when I posted it in my thread!

Got it?? :decision:

Raji Ram :thumb:
 
First thing I want to be a nice hostess to the people :)

visiting my house (thread!) :welcome:

Second thing I do not want to end up becoming another KRVR 47 :popcorn:

showering cascades of 'likes' on everyone in the vicinity! :rain:
 
[FONT=comic sans ms,sans-serif]# 37.CANDIDATE.

Any person seeking any public office is denoted bu the word candidate. WHY?

In ancient Rome, when a politician went campaigning, he wore immaculate white toga, to make a good impression on the voters.

'Candidatus' is the Latin word meaning 'a person dressed in white'. In due course this word became synonymous with a person seeking any public office.
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[FONT=comic sans ms,sans-serif]# 38. CARNIVAL.

Carnival is the period of feasting preceding the Lent. During carnivals, people stuff themselves with meat.

Lent is the time when Christians are forbidden from eating meat.The Italians coined the word Carnivale from the Latin Carnem levare meaning 'to remove meat'.

# 39.CLUE.

Clew meant a ball of thread in Medieval England. Now clew or clue denotes a guide to the solution to a difficult problem.

What is the connection between clew/clue and a solution to a problem?

In a Greek legend Theseus kills the Minotaur of Crete in a labyrinth. He uses a ball of thread to find his way out of the labyrinth. The ball of thread 'clew' has changed to the 'clue'- the guide to the solution of a difficult problem.
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[FONT=comic sans ms,sans-serif]# 40. COACH.

Large horse drawn carriages first appeared in the 15Th Century. The were made in the Kocs region in Hungary.The name given to the carriage was Kocs cart or Kocsi szeker.
By the 16th Century, similar coaches were built in England. The name Kocs got modified to Coach.

# 41. DELIBERATE.

Latin 'Libra' means scales. Originally the word deliberately meant to "weigh in the balance". Whenever anyone makes a decision after carefully weighing the situation he is said to act 'deliberately'.The abbreviation for a pound weight 'lb' is derived from 'Libra'.[/FONT]
 
You have to know these!!!

The following gems of wisdom were gleaned from test papers and essays from elementary,

junior high, high school, and college students of USA . As one teacher noted, “It is truly

astonishing what weird stuff our young scholars can create under the pressures of time

and grades!”


1. “Water is composed of two gins, Oxygin and Hydrogin. Oxygin is pure gin.

Hydrogin is gin and water.”


2. “Blood flows down one leg and up the other.”


3. “Dew is formed on leaves when the sun shines down on them and makes them perspire.”


4. “Mushrooms always grow in damp places and so they look like umbrellas.”


5. “Momentum: What you give a person when they are going away.”


6. “To prevent milk from turning sour, keep it in the cow.”


7. “The parts of speech are lungs and air.”


8. “The inhabitants of Moscow are called Mosquitoes.”


9. “A census taker is a man who goes from house to house increasing the population.”


10. “Most of the houses in France are made of plaster of Paris.”


11. “The spinal column is a long bunch of bones. The head sits on the top and you sit on the bottom.”


12. “The word trousers is an uncommon noun because it is singular at the top and plural

at the bottom.”


13. “Iron was discovered because someone smelt it.”


14. “Syntax is all the money collected at the church from sinners.”


15. Beethoven wrote music even though he was deaf. He was so deaf he wrote loud music.

He took long walks in the forest even when everyone was calling for him.

Beethoven expired in 1827 and later died for this.


16. The sun never set on the British Empire because the British Empire ‘s in the East and the

sun sets in the West.


17. Gravity was invented by Issac Walton. It is chiefly noticeable in the fall when the apples

are falling off the trees.


18. Finally Magna Carta provided that no man should be hanged twice for the same offence.


19. After his death, his career suffered a dramatic decline.


20. Actually, Homer was not written by Homer but by another man of that name.


21. Bach was the most famous composer in the world and so was Handel. Handel was half

German, half Italian and half English. He was very large.


22. The Greeks were a highly sculptured people, and without them we wouldn’t have history.

The Greeks also had myths. A myth is a female moth.


23. The invention of the steamboat caused a network of rivers to spring up.


24. Queen Victoria was the longest queen. She sat on a thorn for 63 years.

:madgrin: . . . :faint:
 
[FONT=comic sans ms,sans-serif]# 42.DERRICK.

Derrick is a kind of hoisting machine, a frame work over oil wells etc. It is a dockyard crane resembling the gallows.

England and Spain were engaged in wars in the 16Th Century. It is said that 24 soldiers from the English fleet were condemned to death for looting in a raid on Cadiz.

No one was keen on carrying out this demeaning task.
Derrick, one of the 24 condemned to death, agreed to carry out the execution of the other 23 persons-if he was given pardon.

He was granted pardon. He hanged the 23 other men. Later he became a full fledged hangman at London Tyburn gaol.

His name came to be associated with the dockyard crane resembling one of his gallows.[/FONT]
 
[FONT=comic sans ms,sans-serif]# 43. DIXIELAND

America was flooded with counterfeit money in the 1830s! Every bank note was suspected as a counterfeit note- except the bank notes from Louisiana.

They bore the name of Citizen bank and Trust company of New Orleans.They were trusted throughout the nation.They were printed in a mixture of English and French.

The ten dollar bill issued in 1850s carried the word Dix meaning Ten at its back.So Dixie became solid and good currency. Louisiana became the Land of Dixie!
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[FONT=comic sans ms,sans-serif]# 44. DOLLAR.

Silver coins used in the 16th Century Europe were minted in Bohemia in a place called Joachimsthal. Dollar was known by the name Joachimsthaler. Later this long word was shortened to Thaler and then became Dollar.

The sign of the Dollar was derived from the symbol of Philip V of Spain. It was a ribbon winding between the two pillars of Hercules at Gibraltar and Ceuta. Dollar became America's official currency in 1792.[/FONT]
 
[FONT=comic sans ms,sans-serif]# 45.DOUGH BOY.

Dough boys were small round dough cakes served to American sailors aboard ships.

The large brass buttons on the uniforms of American soldiers resembles the dough boy cakes. So from late 1840, dough boys came to denote the American soldiers.
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[FONT=comic sans ms,sans-serif]# 46. DUNCE.

By the curious twist of the cruel Fate, the name of one of the most brilliant thinkers of The Middle Ages has com to denote a fool!

John Duns Scotus was a great thinker belonging to The Middle Ages.His teachings were dismissed after his death in 1308.

During Renaissance, the scholars who supported his views were contemptuously named as Dunsers. Later the word 'dunce' came to denote an utter fool.
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Visalakshi Ramani said:
[FONT=comic sans ms,sans-serif]# 46. DUNCE.

By the curious twist of the cruel Fate, the name of one of the most brilliant thinkers of The Middle Ages has com to denote a fool!

John Duns Scotus was a great thinker belonging to The Middle Ages.His teachings were dismissed after his death in 1308.

During Renaissance, the scholars who supported his views were contemptuously named as Dunsers. Later the word 'dunce' came to denote an utter fool.
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Click to expand...

Dear Mrs Visalakshi Ramani,

Very interesting. I have known during my school days, many public schools in India parting British education used to put "Dunce Cap" marked "D"on students who could not make the grade.

Regards,
Brahmanyan,
Bangalore.
 
Dear Sir,

People's names have become part of a world class language for different reasons.

Boycott became part of English since he was hated and boycotted by every one.

Derrick became famous in spite of his demeaning job as a hangman.

Poor scholar John Duns Scotus became famous by gifting his respectable name to

the utter fools.

Irony of fate!

with warm regards,
Visalakshi Ramani. :pray2:
 
[FONT=comic sans ms,sans-serif]
# 47.EAVESDROPPERS.

Before the invention of roof guttering, thatched roofs were being used in Medieval England.

The rain cascading from the roof would soak into the foundation! So very wide eaves were set up to drain the rain water quickly.

People who stood in this eavesdrop space were close enough to hear he conversations taking place inside the house.

People who were nosy and indulged in such activities were condemned as Eavesdroppers.[/FONT]
 
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