→Subscribe for new videos every d→’s intelligence The first part of the word comes from the Latin “sapiens”, meaning “wise”. (QF 640) 2. A contronym is a word that can be its own opposite for example, “left” can mean to “depart” and “remain”. (QF 430) 3. You may have heard that “swag” comes from a 1960s acronym for “Secretly We Are Gay”. In fact, the noun, “swag”, dates back at least to the 14th century meaning “bulky bag”. It then morphed into meaning a “blustering fellow” by the late 16th century and by the late 18th century had come to mean “ornamental festoon” (festoon meaning some sort of adornment like flowers or ribbons and other decorations). (QF 664) 4. “Are you as bored as I am?” read backwards is the same sentiment, just one is introspective. (QF 624) 5. You may have heard that the longest English word in which all the letters are in alphabetical order with no letter repeated is “almost.” Well, almost. The actual winner is Aegilops, the name of a genus of flowering plants in the grass family, Poaceae. Aegilops comes from the Greek aegilos and in free translation means “an herb liked by goats.” (QF 716) 6. The name “taxi” is shortened from “taxicab”. So where did “taxicab” come from? It is derived from the two words: “taximeter” and “cabriolet”. The taximeter was invented in 1891 and is used to record distances and calculate the fare. Cabriolet refers to a horse drawn carriage where the driver stands in the back of the carriage. The name “taximeter” itself is derived from the Mid-Latin “taxa”, meaning “tax or charge”. The first documented use of the word “taxicab” was in March of 1907 in London. Another phrase that derived from taximeter was a “taxi dancer”, which was a woman who sold her services at dance halls. 7. “Hippopotamus” comes from the Greek “Hippo” meaning “horse” and “potamos”, meaning “river”, hence “river horse”. (QF 627) 8. Synesthesia (meaning literally “together sensation”) is a condition where when one sensory pa