Quite Interesting ✓

In the late 18th century, ‘you are a thief and a murderer and you have killed a baboon and stolen his face’ was a common phrase used to express contempt for someone. 20.4K views · 461 likes · 36 reposts · 12 replies Open on X →

The word rooster was adopted by American puritans in the 18th century because they didn’t want to use the word cock. 30K views · 1.3K likes · 75 reposts · 33 replies Open on X →

Word of the day: QUOBBLED – the wrinkled state of your fingers when they’ve been in water for too long. 25K views · 533 likes · 67 reposts · 6 replies Open on X →

The book which first printed the nursery rhyme Baa Baa Black Sheep also contained ‘Piss a Bed, Piss a Bed, Barley Butt, Your Bum is so heavy, You can’t get up.' 37.2K views · 1K likes · 67 reposts · 12 replies Open on X →

In 1731, Sister Mariana de Jesus, a Portuguese nun, was sentenced to six months silence for ogling a monk with a telescope and passing raunchy messages to him hidden in a pancake. 64.8K views · 1.9K likes · 156 reposts · 37 replies Open on X →

The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago, the second best time is now. CHINESE PROVERB 19.4K views · 431 likes · 36 reposts · 4 replies Open on X →

From the time it was discovered, to when it was demoted as a planet, Pluto had only completed a third of an orbit of the Sun. 25K views · 709 likes · 55 reposts · 14 replies Open on X →

In what is the earliest known case of drug addiction, a 25,000 year old Indonesian skeleton’s teeth show he was sucking on psychoactive nuts every day. 36.7K views · 926 likes · 54 reposts · 27 replies Open on X →

Word of the day: NILLIONAIRE - someone with no money. 71.9K views · 1.9K likes · 208 reposts · 34 replies Open on X →

‘Is there any mice in your arse?’ was a 19th-century Scottish way of replying to someone who is referring to themselves as ‘we’. 57.9K views · 2.8K likes · 179 reposts · 25 replies Open on X →

The medieval Venetian version of the phrase ‘I am your obedient servant’ was ‘sono vostro schiavo’, ‘I am your slave’, which with time was shortened to ‘schiavo’, then to ‘s-ciavo’, to ‘s-ciao’, and finally to ‘ciao’. 49.9K views · 1.5K likes · 101 reposts · 19 replies Open on X →

The UN has voted to adopt a new world map which shows Africa to its true scale based on the Equal Earth Map. The only country to vote against it was the USA. https://t.co/O8DW0ApxJZ

33.2K views · 782 likes · 56 reposts · 24 replies Open on X →

Saverland v. Newton (1837) is a British court case in which a man who attempted to kiss a woman without consent had half his nose bitten off. The judge ruled that ‘when a man kisses a woman against her will, she is fully entitled to bite his nose off, if she so pleases’. 43.3K views · 2.1K likes · 233 reposts · 13 replies Open on X →

No one reads; if someone does read, they don't understand; if they understand, they immediately forget. STANISŁAW LEM 18.1K views · 155 likes · 9 reposts · 8 replies Open on X →

Word of the Day: LANT - to add urine to ale. 21.9K views · 121 likes · 8 reposts · 15 replies Open on X →

In Italian, a boom operator is called a giraffista. https://t.co/FLhsSrQ5Fi

26.4K views · 749 likes · 58 reposts · 8 replies Open on X →

According to the official Vatican dictionary of modern Latin neologisms, ‘Lexicon Recentis Latinitatis’ (2020), Latin for ‘hot pants’ is ‘brevíssimae bracae femíneae’, which literally means ‘very short women’s trousers’. 34.4K views · 222 likes · 9 reposts · 3 replies Open on X →

A Chinese phrase for doing something unnecessary is tuō kùzi fàngpì, which means to ‘take off your trousers to fart’. 31.4K views · 600 likes · 54 reposts · 9 replies Open on X →

In a study, various AI models were told to complete a children’s story about different anthropomorphised animals with unstated gender. The models either avoided gendering the characters (57.2%) or made them male (40.6%). In only 2.2% stories did the characters became female. 22.6K views · 293 likes · 24 reposts · 11 replies Open on X →

Word of the Day: NOCTUARY - a written account of what happens at night; the converse of diary. 25.2K views · 492 likes · 47 reposts · 10 replies Open on X →

Having a younger brother or sister can increase your blood pressure by more than 5%. 65.2K views · 1K likes · 57 reposts · 30 replies Open on X →

Phrase of the Day: HISTORICAL OVERDOSING (coined by Douglas Coupland) - to live in a period of time when too much seems to happen. 15.5K views · 197 likes · 24 reposts · 3 replies Open on X →

A hospital in Salisbury has apologised to a patient for suspending an IV drip from a model skeleton after they ran out of stands. 40.2K views · 796 likes · 31 reposts · 38 replies Open on X →

Children who do music classes do significantly better in Maths, English and Science than those who don’t. They do so well, they’re about an academic year ahead by the time they reach their final year of school. 41K views · 1.1K likes · 87 reposts · 33 replies Open on X →

Zeus had five wives. One of them was his aunt, another was his sister and a third one he ate. 41.4K views · 750 likes · 35 reposts · 36 replies Open on X →

Legally, ‘time immemorial’ refers to any time before 6 July 1189. 15.3K views · 350 likes · 46 reposts · 9 replies Open on X →

Baby turtles call to each other while they’re still in their shells so that they all hatch at the same time. 19.5K views · 715 likes · 31 reposts · 9 replies Open on X →