The word 'mortgage' comes from a French law term that means 'death pledge'.
14
Iceland has been so culturally isolated through history since the Vikings, that compared to other Scandinavian counties, people who speak Icelandic can still read the old Norsk sagas.
4
There are around 41,806 different spoken languages in the world today.
100
In Turkish, the bird we call a Turkey is called "Hindi" ("from India"). In India, it's called "Peru." In Arabic, the bird is called "Greek chicken"; in Greek it's called "French chicken"; and in French it's called "Indian chicken." The bird is indigenous to none of these places.
44
More people in Africa speak French than in France itself.
12
"Goodbye" came from "God bye" which came from "God be with you."
297
When Washoe, the first chimp to use sign language, was told that her caretaker's baby had died, she signed "CRY."
20