The Ultimate Trivia Thread

[doubleshuffle]

When Henry Heinz came up with the "57 Varieties" slogan, his company was already selling over sixty varieties.

[Solitaire1]

Chubby Checker is the only individual to have a Number One hit twice with the same record (The Twist).

[trichobezoar]

*pulling out The Word Museum: The Most Remarkable English Words Ever Forgotten* An archaic definition of a forgotten word:

An abcedarian is a person or book that teaches the alphabet; the word is formed from the first four (or five) letters of the alphabet.

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by trichobezoar

*pulling out The Word Museum: The Most Remarkable English Words Ever Forgotten* An archaic definition of a forgotten word:

An abcedarian is a person or book that teaches the alphabet; the word is formed from the first four (or five) letters of the alphabet.

Isn't that an "abecedarian"?

...

And apparently it can also be an "a-b-c-darian" but the dashes are important.

[Solitaire1]

George Elliot (author of the novel "Silas Marner" among others) is the pen name of Mary Ann Evans.

[crich70]

Coco Chanel named her perfume Chanel #5, but there never was a Chanel #1, #2, #3 or #4.

[trichobezoar]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

Isn't that an "abecedarian"?

And apparently it can also be an "a-b-c-darian" but the dashes are important.

There seem to be a few variations of the word, according to Google/Big Brother Watching. Let's see... *google searching* Hmm, not many. Abcedarian itself is an Old World word, according to Jeffrey Kacirk, author of The Word Museum: The Most Remarkable English Words Ever Forgotten. I don't know the origin of the word, unfortunately. The book doesn't provide enough details, just definitions and references. *looking at the bibliography* The references for this particular entry are A Complete Dictionary of the English Language by Thomas Sheridan (published in London, 1790) and The Century Cyclopedia and Dictionary by William Whitney (published in New York, 1889).

*searching a bit more* Hmm, according to en.wikipedia.org,

A-B-C-darians, ABC-darians, or abecedarians were the youngest students (then called scholars) in the typical one-room school of 19th-century America, so-called because they were just learning their "a-b-cs". It could also refer to someone teaching the alphabet.[1]

Early references

In his autobiographical reminiscences on his school days, Warren Burton recounted that he "was three years and a half old when I first entered the Old School-house as an abecedarian".[2] Many young children were simply sent along with other siblings in order to get them out of their mothers' way.[3] Noah Webster's early school dictionary contains the following entry for abecedarian: A-be-ce-da'-ri-an, n. One who teaches or is learning the alphabet.[4]

Front row seats

In the district schools of the early 19th century, the youngest scholars were seated on the front benches in a room that typically had floors that sloped up from the center on three sides like a small amphitheater. The entrance door(s) and the teacher's desk were located on the unsloped side. The desks accommodated two or more scholars and were arranged up the ramps around a center space, the front of each desk providing the seat for the desk before it, with the front rows consisting only of the benches attached to the desks of the second row where the youngest children sat.[5] Samuel Griswold Goodrich (a.k.a. "Peter Parley") attended a district school around 1810 in which "The larger scholars were ranged on the outer sides, at the desks; the smaller fry of a-b-c-darians were seated in the center".[6] Warren Burton also noted that "next to the spelling floor, were low, narrow seats for abecedarians and others near that rank. In general, the older the scholar the further from the front was his location".[2]

So, according to the archaic definition of scholar, we're all scholars 'cause we literate? lol

[crich70]

Originally Posted by trichobezoar

There seem to be a few variations of the word, according to Google/Big Brother Watching. Let's see... *google searching* Hmm, not many. Abcedarian itself is an Old World word, according to Jeffrey Kacirk, author of The Word Museum: The Most Remarkable English Words Ever Forgotten. I don't know the origin of the word, unfortunately. The book doesn't provide enough details, just definitions and references. *looking at the bibliography* The references for this particular entry are A Complete Dictionary of the English Language by Thomas Sheridan (published in London, 1790) and The Century Cyclopedia and Dictionary by William Whitney (published in New York, 1889).

*searching a bit more* Hmm, according to en.wikipedia.org,



So, according to the archaic definition of scholar, we're all scholars 'cause we literate? lol

And according to the ancient Romans we're all Barbarians simply because we aren't Roman citizens.

[doubleshuffle]

Can abcedarians abdicate?

[Cyberman tM]

The singular of "data" is "datum".
True for english and german. In german the word then doubles as the word for (a calendar) "date".
On the other hand, the german plural for "Datum" is "Daten", which doubles as word for "data".

[Maggie May]

your tongue is the only muscle in your body attached at only one end.

[Solitaire1]

Despite its appearance, each side of an LP has only one groove.

[trichobezoar]

According to the Word Museum, alectromantia was divination by a cock. One would draw a circle, and write in succession round it the letters of the alphabet; on each side of it lay a grain of corn. Then one would put a cock in the centre of the circle, and watch the grains he ate. The letters would prognosticate the answer. [From] Greek alector, cock, manteia, divination.

[crich70]

Originally Posted by trichobezoar

According to the Word Museum, alectromantia was divination by a cock. One would draw a circle, and write in succession round it the letters of the alphabet; on each side of it lay a grain of corn. Then one would put a cock in the centre of the circle, and watch the grains he ate. The letters would prognosticate the answer. [From] Greek alector, cock, manteia, divination.

I imagine it beats reading the future in the entrails of an owl.

[Maggie May]

only the female mosquito bites.