AMAZING FACTS YOU MIGHT NOT HAVE HEARD OFF BEFORE!!!

Why are men and boys called “guys”?

Every November 5, the British celebrate the 1605 foiling of a plot to blow up the parliament buildings by Guy Fawkes. As part of the festivities, an effigy of Fawkes dressed in rags and old mismatched clothes was paraded through the streets and then burned on a bonfire. By 1830, any man who was badly dressed was being referred to as a “guy,” meaning he looked as disheveled as the effigy of Guy Fawkes.

Why the presiding officer of a committee is called a “chairman”?

Whether it’s a chairman or a chairwoman, that person is in the seat of authority and has been since the fourteenth century. At that time a chair was a throne (it came from the Greek word kathedra, leading to the word cathedral for the place housing the seat of the bishop). In business, the person in charge sat in a comfortable armed chair, while everyone else sat on stools, and so he took the esteemed title “Chairman.”

Why are the names of those out of favour said to be kept in a “black book” or on a “blacklist”?

The “blacklisting” of artists by the American Congress during the 1950s was a shameful and well documented reign of terror, but blacklists and little black books are still quietly with us, especially among those who see enemies everywhere. It began with King Henry VIII of England, whose infamous black book recorded so-called abuses in monasteries to justify his purge against the Catholic Church.

How did dude become a greeting between friends?

The word dude originated as a Victorian slang word for a man who was effeminate. It’s a variation of dud or duds, from the Arabic word for cloak (dudde), and was a reference to fancy or foppish clothes. When vain, fashion-conscious city slickers wanted a taste of the West, they went to a Dude Ranch. Dude was kept alive by California surfers and took on its current fellowship meaning from a generation weaned on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

Why are both the contents of a novel and the level of a building referred to as a “story”?

The Latin word historia entered English as history, meaning an account of significant events. By the sixteenth century the abbreviated story took the meaning of an imaginative narrative. In the Middle Ages, by using sculpture and stained glassed windows, architects told themes from history on the fronts of large buildings, each being the height of one of the building’s floors. Each floor told a story.

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