The Amazing World

Amazing words in the english language

2009-05-23T22:30:00.001-07:00

In the middle of my coursework boredom came across some of these amazing words. If you manage to use these in conversation, let me know:

Sesquipedalian- a word for a person who uses long words

Scurryfunge- a hasty tidying of your house between the time you see a neighbour and the time they knock.

Crytoscopophilia – The urge to look through peoples windows as you pass by their houses

Raillery- Good-humoured banter or teasing

Pulchritudinous – Very beautiful

Defenestrate -to throw out of a window.

Discombobulate-To upset or confuse, to disconcert

And to finish with a classic- Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia - The fear of long words

Amazing Word Facts

2009-05-23T22:28:00.000-07:00

The longest one-syllable word in the English language is "screeched."

"Dreamt" is the only English word that ends in the letters "mt".

Almonds are members of the peach family.

The symbol on the "pound" key (#) is called an octothorpe.

The dot over the letter 'i' is called a tittle.

Ingrown toenails are hereditary.

The word "set" has more definitions than any other word in the English language.

"Underground" is the only word in the English language that beginsand ends with the letters "und."

There are only four words in the English language which end in "-dous" -- tremendous, horrendous, stupendous, and hazardous.

The longest word in the English language, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, is pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis.

The only other word with the same amount of letters is pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconioses, its plural.

The longest place-name still in use is a New Zealand hill, Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateaturipukakapikimaungahoronukupokaiwenuakitnatahu.

Los Angeles's full name is "El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora la Reina de los Angeles de Porciuncula" and can be abbreviated to 3.63% of its size, "L.A."

An ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain.

Tigers have striped skin, not just striped fur.

Alfred Hitchcock didn't have a belly button. It was eliminated when he was sewn up after surgery.

Telly Savalas and Louis Armstrong died on their birthdays.

Donald Duck's middle name is Fauntleroy.

The muzzle of a lion is like a fingerprint - no two lions have the same pattern of whiskers.

Steely Dan got their name from a sexual device depicted in the book The Naked Lunch.

A pregnant goldfish is called a twit.

The Ramses brand condom is named after the great phaoroh Ramses II who fathered over 160 children.

There is a seven letter word in the English language that contains ten words without rearranging any of its letters, "therein" -- the, there, he, in, rein, her, here, ere, therein, herein.

Duelling is legal in Paraguay as long as both parties are registered blood donors.

John Larroquette of "Night Court" and "The John Larroquette Show" was the narrator of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

A goldfish has a memory span of three seconds.

It's impossible to sneeze with your eyes open.

Cranberries are sorted for ripeness by bouncing them; a fully ripened cranberry can be dribbled like a basketball.

The male gypsy moth can "smell" the virgin female gypsy moth from 1.8 miles away. (But does he CALL? NOOOOOO...)

The letters KGB stand for Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti.

"Stewardesses" is the longest word that can be typed with only the left hand.

To "testify" was based on men in the Roman court swearing to a statement made by swearing on their testicles.

The combination "ough" can be pronounced in nine different ways. The following sentence contains them all: "A rough-coated, dough-faced, thoughtful ploughman strode through the streets of Scarborough; after falling into a slough, he coughed and hiccoughed."

The only 15 letter word that can be spelled without repeating a letter is uncopyrightable.

Facetious and abstemious contain all the vowels in the correct order, as does arsenious, meaning "containing arsenic."

Emus and kangaroos cannot walk backwards, and are on the Australian coat of arms for that reason.

Amazing World Wallpapers

2008-10-23T22:00:00.000-07:00

The United States In 1800

2008-10-23T21:59:00.000-07:00

The Constitution of the United States

2008-10-23T21:57:00.000-07:00

Delegates to the Constitutional Convention signed the Constitution in Philadelphia on September 17, 1787. The fifty-five delegates who signed this monumental political document were the best minds of the Colonies at the time. The Constitution was forwarded to the Congress and the following year was ratified by conventions in nine states, and made the law of the land.

Two days after its signing, the Pennsylvania Packet and Daily Advertiser printed the entire text of the Constitution in its issue dated Wednesday, September 19, 1787. John Dunlap and David C. Claypoole were publishers of the Packet at the time. Both men alternated as official printers to the Continental Congress.

It must be pointed out that the original parchment document on which the Constitution was written was in the custody of the Department of State. Of necessity it traveled with the federal government from New York to Philadelphia and, finally, to Washington. In order to allow citizens in all parts of the Republic to read the Constitution, its entire text was printed in the newspapers of the day.

In similar fashion....here is an exact-size reproduction of the first public printing of the U.S. Constitution as it appeared in the September 19, 1787 issue of the Pennsylvania Packet.