The word ‘quidnunc’ first appeared around the year 1710, in Irish writer and politician Sir Richard Steele’s journal The Tatler: ‘The infignificancy of my manners to the reft of the world, makes the laughers call me a quid-nunc, a phrafe which I neither underftand, nor fhall ever enquire what they mean by it.’ Since then, several writers…
The unit pound is abbreviated ‘lb’ which comes from the constellation Libra. The word libra means ‘balance scales’ in Latin. The ancient Romans used the term libra pondo to refer to weight. Libra meant ‘weight’ and pondo meant ‘pound’. This was eventually shortened to libra which came to be abbreviated as ‘lb’.
The projecting area between the two eyebrows, which is just above the nose, is called the glabella. It is triangular in shape. The name is derived from the Latin word glabellus, which means smooth.
The number 17 can be written in Roman as XVII. When these numerals are rearranged, it reads VIXI, which means in Latin ‘I have lived’, meaning ‘my life is over’. The number 17 is therefore considered unlucky in Italy.
The diamond is the hardest substance known, and therefore unbreakable. The word ‘diamond’ is derived from adamas, a Greek word which means ‘unconquerable’. The word adamas was altered to the Latin and early French word diamant and to the English word ‘diamond’.
Tripos is the final honours examination for a BA degree at Cambridge University. This word originates from the Latin word tripus, which means ‘tripod’. Tripus refers to the three-legged stool on which a graduate sat to deliver a satirical speech at the degree ceremony.
