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1. The first cut made by a saw is called the KERF.
2. In the sense of a later event or consequence, the word AFTERMATH originally referred to a second crop of grass grown or cut after the first had been harvested.
3. FOX FROST is frost thick enough to separate individual blades of grass, and lift pieces of loose earth from the surface of the ground.
4. The white tip of a foxâs tail is called the CHAPE.
5. The word QUEUE derives from the French word for an animalâs tail.
6. On average in written English, only one letter in every 510 is a Q.
7. The word VENTRILOQUIST contains all the letters of the alphabet from Q to V.
8. An ENGASTRIMYTH is a ventriloquist. Both words literally mean âbelly-speakerâ.
9. As a name for the stomach, BELLY derives from the Old English word âbelgââwhich is also the origin of the word BELLOWS.
10. The Latin word for a set of bellows was âfollisâ. Because of their pouch-like shape, thatâs the origin of the word FOLLICLE. And because theyâre full of air, itâs the origin of the word FOOL.
11. To be FOOLHARDY is literally to be âfoolishly hardyâ, or recklessly bold. If youâre FOOLHASTY, then youâre foolishly hasty, and act too quickly or rashly for your own good.
12. QUICK originally meant âlivingâ, not just âfastââwhich is why mercury is called QUICKSILVER.
13. There are craters on the planet Mercury named BURNS, BYRON, COLERIDGE, DONNE, KEATS, MILTON and SHAKESPEARE.
14. Shakespeare is popularly said to have started work on The Tempest after hearing of the wreck of the Sea Venture, which was shipwrecked on Bermuda during a storm in 1610. The wreck is now depicted on the Bermudian flag.
15. A GULAR FLAG is a retractable fold of neck skin used by some lizards and other reptiles to communicate to one another.
16. Samuel Johnsonâs Dictionary defines a LIZARD as âan animal resembling a serpent, with legs added to itâ.
17. The word SERPENT literally means âcreeping thingâ.
18. âIf the badger leaves his hole, the fox will creep into itâ is a proverbial warning against taking your eye off something important, or neglecting something you care deeply for.
19. In Victorian slang, âto overdraw the badgerâ was to go into your overdraft.
20. To FORENAIL is to spend money before youâve earned it.
21. The term PRIZE MONEY originally referred to the money made by selling the cargo of a captured ship.
22. The word CARGO derives from âcarrusâ, the Latin word for a wagonâwhich is also where the word CAR comes from.
23. LIMOUSINE cars are named after a style of hood once popular in the Limousin region of France, which the pleated fabric covers on the backs of early limousine cars was supposed to resemble.
24. A CHAUFFEURâS FRACTURE is a fracture of the radius bone, so named because it so often affected drivers turning the starting handles of early motor cars.
25. The very first work-related illness ever documented was called CHIMNEYSWEEPâS SCROTUM, in 1775.
26. The Irish word MĂCHĂN can be used to refer to the ruins of a chimney stack, marking what was once the site of a house.
27. In 2012, the remains of a Second World War carrier pigeon were found in a chimney in Surrey, along with the coded message it had left France with 68 years earlier. The message has been claimed to have been decoded several times, but its precise meaning remains disputed.
28. Proverbially, âto shoot at a pigeon and kill a crowâ is to fall short of expectations, or to get less or worse than you wanted or tried for.
29. Named after one of a pair of warriors in Homerâs Iliad who swap their armour mid battle, a GLAUCUS SWAP is an unfair exchange that benefits one side more than the other.
30. In the sense of an array or an entire range of something, the word PANOPLY originally referred to a complete set of armour. It derives from the Greek for âall weaponsâ.
