Wednesday WOLF - Tonsils

I've got a collection of random information in my brain that makes me an awesome Trivial Pursuit partner, but is completely useless when it comes to real world application. Like say, job applications. I thought I'd share some of this random crap with you in the form of another acronym-ific series. I give you - Word Origins from Left Field - that's right, the WOLF. Er... ignore the fact that the "from" doesn't fit.

We all have one and none of us need it. It's our appendix.

In Latin it means the part that hangs, and it's used in reference to our body part because that particular one kinda hangs out at the end of the large intestine. This is also why that little cross-referencing thing that hangs onto the end of books is called an appendix as well.

So why isn't your palatine uvula called the appendix?

It should be.

Wednesday WOLF - In Spades

I've got a collection of random information in my brain that makes me an awesome Trivial Pursuit partner, but is completely useless when it comes to real world application. Like say, job applications. I thought I'd share some of this random crap with you in the form of another acronym-ific series. I give you - Word Origins from Left Field - that's right, the WOLF. Er... ignore the fact that the "from" doesn't fit.

I'm a pretty decent poker player, and the history of card suits is rather fascinating. If you've ever heard the phrase "in spades" - meaning that someone has something in abundance, or an extravagance - comes from the game of Bridge, where Spades is the highest suit.

But why is it called a spade in the first place? It's got nothing to do with shovels, just FYI. Decks of playing cards originated in Asia, arriving in Italy, Spain and Germany before making their way to England. Early versions of playing cards had different suits in different countries. In Italy the suits were Cups, Swords, Coins and Batons, which became Anglicized to our more familiar Hearts, Spades, Diamonds and Clubs.

The Italian word for is spada, which the French and English converted to Spades.

Wednesday WOLF - Pig-Headed

I've got a collection of random information in my brain that makes me an awesome Trivial Pursuit partner, but is completely useless when it comes to real world application. Like say, job applications. I thought I'd share some of this random crap with you in the form of another acronym-ific series. I give you - Word Origins from Left Field - that's right, the WOLF. Er... ignore the fact that the "from" doesn't fit.

Our interesting word origin for today comes complete with a legend, and kings, and swine! We all know that being bull-headed means that you're a very stubborn person, but being pig-headed means that you're.... well, kind of a jerk and always want to get your own way. I'm totally fine with being bull-headed (and freely admit to being so), however, being pig-headed is a different story.

So where does it come from? Interestingly, I thought this one would be fairly simple but I had to do some digging, and I'm not entirely confident on the sources for this one. But like a true writer I like the story so much I just feel like sharing it.

My research led me to two different references to a legend from the Middle Ages set in Indonesia. The story goes that there was a king who could enter a meditative state so deep, that his head could be lopped off with a sword, then placed back on his neck without any detriment to himself. It was kind of his thing, and he like to show off a bit.

So, one day, his servant lopped his head off, but it rolled rather far away and could not be found. Apparently there's a time limit on unconscious-head-reattachment, so the servant quickly decapitated a pig and tossed that on the body so that the king could reanimate himself.

But when he did he was totally pissed.

He had the servant killed, but he was stuck with the pig head, and spent the rest of his life kind of being a pretentious jerk about it. So - lesson learned - don't encourage people to chop your head off.