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Useless Language Data and Facts

The dot over the letter 'i' is called a tittle.

315 entries in Webster's 1996 Dictionary were misspelled.

Upper and lower case letters are named 'upper' and 'lower', because in the time when all original print had to be set in individual letters, the 'upper case' letters were stored in the case on top of the case that stored the smaller, 'lower case' letters. The proper term for upper case letters is "majuscule" and for lower case it's "minuscule".

The printing industry gives us other popular phrases, such as "mind your 'p's and 'q's." The moveable block type had the letters in reverse so they would read correctly when imprinted on paper. Apprentices had to remove the type from the pages and return the blocks to their upper and lower cases. Each drawer in the case held a different size of letters, and each drawer was divided into compartments (called sorts) for each letter. The letters 'p' and 'q' could easily be mistaken, so the master printer would advise their apprentices to mind their 'p's and 'q's.

There are no words in the dictionary that rhyme with the words orange, purple, or silver, or month.

When the master printer was building a page and discovered that a particular sort was empty, he would get angry. Thus the term "out of sorts".

The question mark came from a monk habit of writing the Latin word for question, quo, at the end of sentences. Over time, the letters were written vertically to save space and morphed into the ? we write today. Similarly, the exclamation point came from the Latin word "Lo", meaning something important that should be heeded. (Lo and behold...)

If you hate our "QWERTY" keyboard layout, blame Christopher Sholes. He changed it from the original in 1873 to lessen the chances of the keys jamming.

Escalator is one of many words that were originally trademarks but have become ordinary words found in dictionaries. Some other words which were originally trademarks and have now passed into common use are aspirin, autoharp, band-aids, breathalyzer, cellophane, Coke (in some areas, at least), corn flakes, cube steak, ditto, dry ice, dumpster, formica, Frisbee, granola, gunk, jeep, kerosene, Kleenex, mace, nylon, ping-pong (also an onomatopoeia), popsicle, Q-tip, rollerblade, rolodex, Scotch tape, sheetrock, spandex, styrofoam, tabloid, thermos, trampoline, yo-yo, xerox, and zipper.

The longest one-syllable word in the English language is "screeched."

"Dreamt" and "undreamt" are the only English words that end in the letters "mt."

Maine is the only US state whose name is just one syllable.

"Stewardesses" is the longest word that is typed with only the left hand.

"Go" is the shortest complete sentence in the English language.

The longest word you can make from the letters on the top row of a keyboard or typewriter is... typewriter!