Trivia

It was customary in old Rome for the campaigning politician to take along a sidekick whose job it was to whisper to him the name of every voter the pair encountered. This name caller was identified as the “nomenclator.” Whence that modern word so dear to the hearts of the military: “nomenclature.”

Consider well-educated women with good incomes between 25 and 35 years old. They buy the clothing the designers dream up. If they won’t buy the line, the line is dead. So they dictate fashion.

Early Greek dramatists sacrificed a goat on stage at a play’s climax, so such a performance came to be called a “goat song.” Translated, that turns into our word “tragedy.”

Do you buy the ancient claim that certain nationalities inherit a knack for certain work? Believers say the Irish, for instance, tend to make good lawyers. If appropriately educated in law, they say, the Irish seem to become especially skilful in cross-examination.

Man and the beaver are the two animals that have most altered the natural landscape, and the curiosity here is that beaver has done relatively little harm.

The German language has 30 different words to identify various kinds of kisses.

That gap within the open beak of a bird is called the “rictus.”