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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More people in Africa speak French than in France itself.
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The word 'mile' is derived from the Latin word for 1,000 - the number of paces it took the average Roman!
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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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The only 15 letter word that can be spelled without repeating a letter is "uncopyrightable"!
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The most popular first name in the world is Muhammad!
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Hoover vacuum cleaners were so popular in the UK that many people now refer to vacuuming as hoovering.
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In England, in the 1880's, "Pants" was considered a dirty word!
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