A “butt” was a Medieval unit of measure for wine. Technically, a 'buttload' of wine is about 475 liters, or 126 gallons.
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The phrase 'rule of thumb' is derived from and old English law which stated that you couldn't beat your wife with anything wider than your thumb.
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The word "impossible" dropped in use by 50% over the course of the 20th century
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There are only four words in the English language which end in “dous”:
tremendous, horrendous, stupendous, and hazardous.
tremendous, horrendous, stupendous, and hazardous.
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The dot over the letter 'i' is called a tittle.
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Shakespeare invented over 1,700 words that we use today.
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There are around 41,806 different spoken languages in the world today.
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Ernest Vincent Wright wrote a novel, "Gadsby", which contains over 50,000 words -- none of them with the letter E!
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