Quirky History facts!

[Michaelangelica]

no, greek only... Really, really technically barbarians were those people who were not Greek. Many people spoke latin, but it was very few people outside HRE that spoke greek

 

Ok; thanks for putting me straight

 

I though barbarians were the northern European tribes Germanic etc that gave Rome such stife.

 

Were Persians and Egyptians barbarians too?

[alexander]

Barbarians were everyone who was not Greek, so yes the rest of the world was barbarians. Now, because romans dealt with Goths and other germanic people, they were the people that barbarian was used for the most, eventually giving it's today's meaning of:

1. A member of a people considered by those of another nation or group to have a primitive civilization.

2. A fierce, brutal, or cruel person.

[Qfwfq]

and Latin?

because thay Bar . . Bar. Bar. babbled

(Their speach sounded like babble-is there a Roman word for that?)

Yes, barbarus, from the Greek barbaros. Although, not exactly. It is onomatopeic but indicated stutter, by imitation, more than babble.

 

I disagree about it "technically" meaning not-Greek-speaking, the word in each language originally meant foreigner --long before Latin had become the lingua franca-- and in later Roman times came to be derogatory and hence applied to the enemy.

[Turtle]

While Ben Franklin was in France negotiating a treaty in 1777, a Benedictine monk wrote him proposing that he would pray for America if America would pay off his gambling debts. :D

[alexander]

Disagree all you want, its a fact and is posted as such, even wiki says: The word "Barbarian" comes into English from Medieval Latin barbarinus, from Latin barbaria, from Latin barbarus, from the ancient Greek word βάρβαρος (barbaros) which meant a non-Greek, someone whose (first) language was not Greek. Nothing to disagree with...

[alexander]

Her is another quirky fact: Martin Luther King, was actually named after a great theologian and church reformer Martin Luther, King's real name was Michael and his family last name was King.

[Qfwfq]

Yeah, I've always had a mild suspicion he had chosen the name after the church reformer.

 

Disagree all you want, its a fact and is posted as such, even wiki says:

I trust Devoto and Oli more than wiki, especially as to Latin and Greek etymus. :beer: βάρβαρος (thanks for the unicode) meant a non-Greek because it meant a foreigner. The term 'barbaria' doesn't mean 'barbarian' but instead a foreign country or, perhaps, a barbarian (in the sense of uncouth) act, something done by one. I had never heard a term such as barbarinus so I Googled it and apart from a few hits with the exact same sentence as the wiki you quote, it seems to be a name. One hit is this post which quotes that wiki and then, in the same post, says:

I do remember from my Latin primer that the Latin word 'barbarian' is translated into the (modern) English word 'foreigner'.

To an Englishman, the word 'foreigner' means someone not from England. To an Indian it means someone not from India...

[Michaelangelica]

a great theologian and church reformer Martin Luther,.

You mean that evil, constipated protestant?:)

[Freddy]

Her is another quirky fact: Martin Luther King, was actually named after a great theologian and church reformer Martin Luther, King's real name was Michael and his family last name was King.

 

Michael Luther King, Sr. changed his and his son's first names from Michael to Martin around 1934 when MLK,Jr. was about 5 years old. Son, father, and grandfather were all preachers.

[Racoon]

In Ancient Egypt, cats were often buried with their masters, or in a special cemetery for cats.

 

In 1991, during an attempted political coup on Russian President Boris Yelstin, food supplies had dwindled down at the parliament buildings so they ordered Pizza Hut to deliver pizzas

 

The phrase "rule of thumb" is derived from an old English law which stated that you couldn't beat your wife with anything wider than your thumb.

 

The United States has never lost a war in which mules were used.

 

The earliest known example of an organized market for equities dates from Rome, second century B.C.

 

In World War II, the German submarine U-120 was sunk by a malfunctioning toilet.

[InfiniteNow]

The United States has never lost a war in which mules were used.

What about where asses were in charge? ;)

 

 

In World War II, the German submarine U-120 was sunk by a malfunctioning toilet.

Did the attacker throw it at them? :lol:

 

 

:biggringift:

[Michaelangelica]

What about where asses were in charge? :)

 

 

 

Did the attacker throw it at them? :)

 

LOL:)

Where do you guys get this stuff?

 

Alexander the great died of malaria ( I think)

[mutetongue]

Valentine Tapley from Pike County, Missouri grew chin whiskers attaining a length of twelve feet six inches from 1860 until his death 1910, protesting Abraham Lincoln's election to the presidency.

[Monomer]

When Theodore Roosevelt was a student at Harvard he kept a small zoo in his room which apparently included lobsters, snakes and a huge tortoise.

[mutetongue]

In the memoirs of Catherine II of Russia, it is recorded that any Russian aristocrat who displeased the queen was forced to squat in the great antechamber of the palace and to remain in that position for several days, mewing like a cat, clucking like a hen, and pecking his food from the floor.

[Michaelangelica]

In the memoirs of Catherine II of Russia, it is recorded that any Russian aristocrat who displeased the queen was forced to squat in the great antechamber of the palace and to remain in that position for several days, mewing like a cat, clucking like a hen, and pecking his food from the floor.

Try goggling Katherine the Great and see what you get!

 

Hashish Assassin - Great Moments in Science - The Lab

Hashish Assassin

 

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Way back in the last century, in the Era of Free Love and lava lamps, marijuana use increased enormously in Western society.

One variety of marijuana, hashish, came with its own romantic legend, that the word hashish gave us the word assassin, from the Arab word haschishin, meaning a user of hashish. But even if it did, it's all based on a lie.

[Boerseun]

William Herschel wanted to name a newly discovered planet "George", after king George III.

 

The eventual name, however, turned out to be Uranus, the granddaddy of the gods. And that's a lucky thing if you're nine years old - it's rather difficult to make fun of 'George'.