Feature Word: Thug
Definition:
Gangster, hoodlum
Description:
The word originated from India describing a band of ruthless bandits in the hills of India. These mythical bandits wore yellow (or orange) bandana which they used to strangle unsuspecting travelers. The ‘hugghi’ only kill their victims by this way.
During British occupation, the British soldiers decided to erradicate the ‘thugghi’. They found thousands of bodies burried by them. From that point on, the word ‘thug’ was used to describe someone who is ruthless.
Source:
History Channel
Mar 20
daveEveryday, Leisure, Life, Maritime, Oddities english
Definition:
to flatter, embellish, lie
Description:
The Smoke Enema:
was used to push smoke into a drowning victim in order to warm the victim from the inside-out.
“…A rectal tube inserted into the anus was connected to a fumigator and bellows that forced the smoke into the rectum. The warmth of the smoke was thought to promote respiration, but doubts about the credibility of tobacco enemas led to the popular phrase “blow smoke up one’s ass.” Search on “tobacco smoke enema” for illustrations of the apparatus.”
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Mar 07
daveLife, Oddities latin
Definition:
An entertainer who is able to project his or her voice to make people believe that it is coming from another source.
Description:
The word is a Latin derivation from two words ‘venter’ and ‘loqui’ meaning ’speaking from the stomach’.
Ventriloquists were almost like shamens in the early days. They would produce voices of spirits and ghosts that would possess their body, and speak from inside their stomach.
They did not become entertainers until a few hundred years later.
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Mar 07
daveLife, Oddities british, english, indian, slang
Definition:
Gangster, hoodlum
Description:
The word originated from India describing a band of ruthless bandits in the hills of India. These mythical bandits wore yellow (or orange) bandana which they used to strangle unsuspecting travelers. The ‘hugghi’ only kill their victims by this way.
During British occupation, the British soldiers decided to erradicate the ‘thugghi’. They found thousands of bodies burried by them. From that point on, the word ‘thug’ was used to describe someone who is ruthless.
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Mar 07
daveLife, Oddities latin, scottish
Definition:
a woody tinder : punk -or- spirit, liveliness
Description:
In the 1500s, someone who fought bravely, especially against tough opponents, was thought of as being on fire. The flaring of the human spirit that happened when someone acted bravely was compared to tinder bursting into flames. In Scotland, tinder was often a dry, spongy wood that was called ’spong’ because it looked like a sponge (’spong,’ the Scottish Gaelic name for a sponge, developed from the Latin word ’spongia,’ which also meant ’sponge’). The image of that spongy wood bursting into flames inspired English speakers to turn ’spong’ into ’spunk.’
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Mar 07
daveLife, Oddities asian
Definition:
Twins that are joined physically.
Description:
The term was first used in 1829 to describe a popular sideshow act of two siblings from Southeast Asia that were joined at the stomach by a small stretch of skin.
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