Someone who steals in small amounts.
During the 1500′s, the Spanish coins were not cut in perfectly round shapes. The weight was what mattered, and not shape.
Cheaters would chisel a little bit off of the borders of the coins to later combine to more coins.
These people were called chiselers.
One can still see coins of certain countries that have dimple borders reminiscent of the chiseled coins.
Mar 07
Life, Oddities asian No Comments
Twins that are joined physically.
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.
Mar 07
Life, Oddities archaeology, roman No Comments
Coffin, a holding container for dead bodies.
In Latin, sarcophagus means ‘flesh-eater’.
When the Romans would open up the tombs that would store the dead commoners of Egypt, the bodies were so decayed (because they were not embalmed) that the Romans thought that they were meant to be in that condition.
They thought that the bodies were put in the containers to rot, so they called the container ‘flesh-eater’, or ‘sarcophagus’.
Mar 07
Life, Oddities animal, weather No Comments
Hard downpour
Houses had thatched roofs–thick straw, piled high, with no wood underneath.
It was the only place for animals to get warm, so all the dogs, cats and other small animals, mice, rats, and bugs lived in the roof.
During a large rainstorm, it became slippery and sometimes the animals would slip and fall off the roof–hence the saying
Mar 07
Life, Oddities body No Comments
Detective
The Pinkerton Detective Agency came up with a creative logo for the company.
It was a picture of an eye with the logo ‘We Never Sleep’ underneath it. It was from this logo that the term, ‘private eye’ came to mean private investigators.
Mar 07
Legal, Life, Oddities, Political animal, government No Comments
government projects or appropriations yielding rich patronage benefits.
You might expect that the original pork barrels were barrels for storing pork — and you’re right. In the early 19th century, that’s exactly what ‘pork barrel’ meant.
But, the term was also used figuratively to mean ‘a supply of money’ or ‘one’s livelihood’ (a farmer, after all, could readily turn pork into cash).
When 20th-century legislators doled out appropriations that benefited their home districts, someone apparently made an association between the profit a farmer got from a barrel of pork and the benefits derived from certain state and federal projects. By 1909, ‘pork barrel’ was being used as a noun naming such government appropriations, and today the term is often used attributively in constructions such as ‘pork barrel politics’ or ‘pork barrel project.’
© Weird Words 2012 
RSS