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Fact Box Level: 4.386 Tokens: 260 Types: 141 TTR: 0.542 |
Word Coining
About three hundred words in the English language come from the names of people. Many of these words are technical words. When there is a new invention or discovery, a new word may be coined after the inventor or scientist.
It is interesting to observe how many common words have found their way into the language from the names of people. Lord Sandwich who lived from 1718-1792 used to sit at the gambling table eating slices of bread with meat in between. As the Lord was the only one among his friends who ate bread in that way, his friends began to call the bread "sandwich" for fun. Later on the word became part of the English language.
The word "boycott" means to refuse to have anything with somebody or something. It comes from a man called Captain Boycott. He was a land agent in 1880 and he collected rents and taxes for an English landowner in Ireland. But the Captain was a very hard man. He treated his poor tenants very badly. His tenants decided not to speak to him at all. Eventually word got back to the landowner and the Captain was removed. The word "boycott" became popular and was used by everyone to mean the kind of treatment that was received by Captain Boycott.
Short Answer Questions
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