2668: International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Standard Apr 7, 2022
Morse code was changed a number of times, finally cemented in 1865 with the International Telecommunication Union standard. This was mostly based on Morse's original system, as well as Gerke's modified European version, but some letters were redesigned wholesale like those for <O> (once • • with a medial pause, to later – – –) and <P> (once • • • • •, later • – – •). It also distinguished <I> and <J> that Gerke's system had as the same (• • without the medial pause), though it does not use Morse's original <J> (– • – •) because this was instead used for <C>.
This left only 4 characters unchanged since the original system. Per letter this did actually make things longer to spell & therefore become on the surface less efficient, but it led to a greater ease of understanding that would cancel that out. It has little resemblance to the original Morse code, but many still call it as such, even though the technical name would be the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) standard.
2667: International Morse Code Apr 6, 2022
There were lots of innovations that helped to spread Morse code, such as moving from paper to sound which speeds up comprehension and the switch from cables to radio waves, which originally could not transmit voices. Beyond that however, the real driver for the system's success was its early, wide adoption, such as at the 1851 Vienna conference which made it standard for many Central European countries, and even earlier when it was adopted among American railroads—eventually adopted broadly in America—in the two decades preceding the Civil War. That said, International Morse code (made by Friedrich Gerke) is different to American Morse code, and was influenced by the system already in place with the Hamburg railways. This standardized the length of dashes, which were somewhat variable in American Morse code, as well as adding in special characters not used for English.
2663: Ƶ & the Nazis Apr 2, 2022
The letter Z, and especially with a crossbar Ƶ, became a symbol closely associated with the Nazis, at least on first glance. Strictly speaking, the Ƶ iconography is not a letter, at least not originally, but a rendering of an old hunting tool known in German as a Wolfsangel, or wolf's hook in English. Basically, it was a metal, Z-shape set of hooked barbs, often with another spiked bar in the middle, which would be embedded in meat and left for wolves to eat and impale themselves on. This was associated with a rebellion after a 15th century peasant uprising used it symbolically, and it also looks like a Germanic rune eihwaz ᛇ. While the latter factor added extra Germanic symbolism, it is not why it became associated with the Nazis.
2634: Regina, a.k.a. Pile-of-Bones Mar 4, 2022
The capital of Saskatchewan, Canada is called 'Regina', named after Queen Victoria, but the name used to be very different. The original name of the settlement in the 19th century was 'Pile-of-Bones', only renamed from 1882 when it was made the capital of the then-territory. This name is from the Cree 'oskana kâ-asatêki' meaning "the place where bones are piled", because this is where the local tribe would leave bison bones on the flat, arid grounds. In fact, the land is so notably barren, and only useful for laying out bones, that at the time of its settlement it was a clear conflict of interest from the Lieutenant Governor who owned a large plot of that land that became the regional capital.
2592: Turkey Changes its Name | Jan 19, 2022
The nation of Turkey stated recently that they plan to officially change the name of the country to 'Turkiye' which is how it is written in Turkish, though without the umlaut for 'Türkiye'. This is not even the only country to change its official, English name in the last decade, as seen with Eswatini and Czechia, but it is certainly the biggest and most important. It may take some time to catch on, if ever, but if anything the term 'Persia' is more ingrained in the mind of an English speaker yet the efforts were successful in changing the name to 'Iran', and likewise with Siam to Thailand etc.. Many have questioned the timing as well, given the severity of the economic crisis going on there, as a way to divert media attention. Only time will tell if this will be widely used, but certainly for official purposes there will be a shift.
2586: tycoon Jan 12, 2022
The word 'tycoon' will for many conjure up images of business magnates or other sort of industrial baron, especially of the 19th century. This is not only a Gilded Age term because that's when it was popular, but reflects a highly specific point in history. The word is from the Japanese 大君 (taikun) meaning 'great lord', which was actually a title for the shogun, a particular type of military dictator. This term was applied by outsiders from 1857 when Japan was opened up and outsiders were allowed to trade merchandise, until 1868 when the shogunate ended.
2565: Guinea-Bissau Dec 21, 2021
There are a number of places named for 'Guinea', a historical region of Africa. Among those, Guinea Bissau is notable because 'Bissau' is not an adjective in the same way as found with 'Equatorial Guinea'. Rather, Bissau is the capital and was named from this after formerly being 'Portuguese Guinea' because the nonspecific 'Guinea' was already taken, having itself once been 'French Guinea'.
2551: When was the 1st British Prime Minister Dec 7, 2021
What is now thought of with the title of 'prime minister' was only called First Lord of the Treasury, officially, before 1905 in Great Britain. This was used for Prime Minister Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, who was also First Lord of the Treasury. This is still true today with prime ministers also carrying the less well known title of First Lord of the Treasury. The man usually credited as being the first Prime Minister, Robert Walpole was only de facto the first, but in 1721 was technically named First Lord of the Treasury.
2549: Timor-Leste Dec 5, 2021
Plenty of regions, and even countries, are named with cardinal directions in their name, like South Sudan or Republic of Northern Macedonia. This is also true in the name of the country, Timor-Leste, though in English this is sometimes 'East Timor'. 'Leste' is 'east' in Portuguese, owing to its Portuguese colonial history, but anglicizing to 'East Timor' only does half the job, because 'timor' means 'east' in the native language of Tetum. Literally therefore its name means 'East-East'. On the other half of the island, now shared with Indonesia, used to be Dutch Timor, now known as 'West Timor', or translated as 'West East'.
2496: Basque Demographics for the Future Oct 12, 2021
Basque has survived the Indo-European invasions of Celts and later Romans, Spanish and French empires, but faces certain other problems today. The Spanish government these days is now much more supportive of the language, and now in Basque Autonomous community, the largest percentage of surveyed speakers belong to 16–24 age range at 57.5% of the overall population—likely even higher with those younger—as opposed to the over 65 range, which is only at 25%. This will basically secure the language's vitality for the next generations, and is reflective of the anti-Basque policies of the Franco regime. In French Basque Community however, the largest demographic of speakers is the over-65 range, and of that it is only 32.4%. This is a bad sign in general for any language development, as this is past the age of raising children and thus past the time for native transmission.
2485: Legal Doublets Oct 1, 2021
Legal doublets are phrases, used in legal and common uses, which uses two or more nearly synonymous words, such as "cease and desist", "clear and present danger" or indeed "will and testament". Like other binomials, these are often connected with 'and', and often cannot be said out of order. These are not totally random however, nor purposeless (at least historically), since many started as Latin or French words followed by an English translation, though others originated as near-redundancy. Eventually both parts became English translations, and this phenomenon, which is already especially particular to law, does not exist across languages as much.
2482: Cleopatra: Not Exactly a Name Sep 28, 2021
Although the name Cleopatra is famous, most of her female relatives and ancestors were Cleopatra, her own full name being Cleopatra VII Philopator (Κλεοπάτρα Φιλοπάτωρ). Later she took on the title Theā́ Philopátōra (Θεᾱ́ Φιλοπάτωρα). Likewise, all her male relatives and ancestors were Ptolemy (Πτολεμαῖος) such as her brother and husband Ptolemy XIII Theos Philopator. Many of them therefore had other, secondary names with Cleopatra or Ptolemy acting as family names or even titles, though for women Arsinoe (Ἀρσινόη) or Berenice (Βερενίκη) also were options.
2481: nicotine Sep 27, 2021
Tobacco is native to Central America, hence the word coming to English from Spanish, and likewise there was a Portuguese connection—albeit more convoluted—for 'nicotine'. It is named from the New Latin 'nicotiana', which is the scientific name of the plant, 'nicotiana herba', and that word comes from the name of the French ambassador to Portugal, who brought tobacco back to France in 1560: Jean Nicot. It is unclear where that name originates.
2473: Cleveland Guardians Sep 19, 2021
Unlike with the Washington Football Team which moved to remove its old name of the Washington Redskins and went with a temporary name (still in use) the Cleveland Indians became the Cleveland Guardians in 2021, and at the same time announced their new logo, and mascots. Many had predicted other named, including the Cleveland Spiders, a name used over 110 years ago for a Cleveland baseball team, but in the end it was named for the Guardian of Traffic statues in the city.
2401: Russian Continents Jul 16, 2021
It's well known that the Spanish speaking world regard the landmasses of North and South America as one continent, simply the Americas. In this way those people regard the world with 6 continents, but it could go even fewer. The Russians and Japanese distinguish between two Americas, but regard Eurasia as one continent. This makes sense for Russia especially which straddles both with wide margins. That's still just 6, and while some academics discuss the idea of 5 or even only 4—Afro-Eurasia, Americas, Antarctica, Oceania—this is not a major movement.
2397: Naming of the First World War Jul 12, 2012
The First World War may have sounded a pessimistic name for those who would not predict a second, but in 1920 there was a book named as such. In fact, while many at the time called it The Great War, this had previously referred to the Napoleonic War, and realizing this nature of forgetting and renaming wars, The First World War, 1914-1918 by Charles à Court Repington was titled for people of future generations.
2396: Countries without Long-Form Names Jul 11, 2021
Most countries have an official long-form name such as 'Venezuela' and 'The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela', 'Micronesia' to the 'Federated States of Micronesia', and 'Luxembourg' to 'Grand Duchy of Luxembourg'. Indeed, countries like Japan, Hungary, Tuvalu, and Ireland are some of the few countries with no distinctions between common names and official names, sort of. In the case of Japan, the official name is Nippon, even in English, but this is very rarely used and since it is simply the endonym rather than an expanded name this is not considered to be long-form. Conversely, Ireland is often referred to as the Republic of Ireland, especially to disambiguate this with Northern Ireland or the island as a whole, despite the fact that this is not officially used by the country itself. Some others like Hungary used to have official long-forms but removed them, as in that case in 2012.
2375: Some Country Domain Extensions Jun 19, 2021
Everyone knows .com or .org, but every nation and some territories will have their own domain extensions, some of which do not make sense at first glance. Often this is just from the native language as with Germany's .de (Deutschland), but in the case of South Africa's .za, this is from 'Zuid-Afrika' though now in Afrikaans it is 'Suid-Afrika'. Then there are even more anomalous seeming cases like Western Sahara's .eh. This is actually from Spanish 'Español Sahara' (Spanish Sahara) despite that political period ending in 1975. The H being taken of saHara since Spain itself already uses .es. Others are just from lack of priority, like the French Mayotte having .yt, also sometimes used by YouTube.
2370: Cakes & Biscuits: Legal Classification Jun 14, 2021
Cakes and biscuits might sound like sweet and easy-going treat, but there is a legal and effectively molecular distinction drawn between these in the UK which has led to actual court hearings. Particularly, the Jaffa Cake was subject to this dispute because the two classes of food are taxed differently, and Jaffa Cakes had to be proven to be cakes to avoid a tax specifically on chocolate-covered biscuits. The government tried to base its case on how it was produced like a biscuit, but as had been established in a previous case cakes harden when stale, and biscuits become limp when stale. Since Jaffa Cakes are tall, spongey, and will lose moisture when stale, these were legally proven to be cakes.
For more legal food classification click here.
2361: Pringles & Its Linguistic Dilema Jun 5, 2021
While it's true that usually in the US flat, cooked, hard discs of potato are called '(potato) chips', and that in the UK these same things are called 'crisps', it is in a certain sense challenged. There is in the US a legal definition, and therefore limitation on what is a 'chip' and Pringles® do not meet these criteria and so in the US are actually mandatorily avoided as 'crisps'. This is because rather than drying, baking, or frying whole potatoes, Pringles use "dehydrated processed potato" along with corn, rice, wheat and other ingredients. This was ruled legally not a potato chip in 1975 and while the alternative 'crisp' is used in the US, this might have posed a problem in the UK. They had a separate legal decision there where it was decided that they could use the culturally dominant word 'crisp' for the particular snack.