Page 2 - Language Facts

In France, megabytes are called mega-octets because Megabyte would be a dirty word!

An octet is a unit of digital information in computing and telecommunications that consists of eight bits. The term is often used when the term byte might be ambiguous, as historically there was no standard definition for the size of the byte.

In France, French Canada and Romania, octet is used in common language instead of byte when the 8-bit sense is required, for example, a megabyte is called a megaoctet, because in French "byte" means "cock" and therefore the term is inappropriate.

The term octet is also used when the use of byte might be ambiguous. It is frequently used in the Request for Comments publications of the Internet Engineering Task Force to describe storage sizes of network protocol parameters. The earliest example is RFC 635 from 1974. The unit byte is platform-dependent and has represented various storage sizes in the history of computing.

However, due to the influence of several major computer architectures and product lines, the byte became overwhelmingly associated with 8 bits. This meaning of byte is codified in such standards as ISO/IEC 80000-13. While to most people today, byte and octet are synonymous, those working with certain legacy systems are careful to avoid ambiguity.

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A study asked people to write ‘door’ 30 times in 60 seconds. After, they doubted that door was a real word!

You might be familiar with déjà vu. Jamais vu is the opposite feeling to it. Jamais vu is when you experience a familiar situation but somehow feels strangely new.

At the International Conference of Memory in Sydney, Chris Moulin of Leeds University asked 92 volunteers to write out ‘door’ 30 times in 60 seconds as part of an experiment.

After they were done, 68% of people showed symptoms of jamais vu, such as beginning to doubt that ‘door’ was a real word. Dr. Moulin believes that it’s because the brain grows fatigued that this phenomenon happens.

Try it out for yourself and let us know in the comments if you ever doubt that ‘door’ is a word!

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Crossing your fingers for luck is actually a Christian symbol for invoking protection by emulating the shape of a cross!

Crossing your fingers is a hand gesture commonly used to superstitiously wish for good luck. The gesture is referred to by the common expression "keeping one's fingers crossed" or just "fingers crossed," meaning "let’s hope for a positive result".

The gesture has also been historically used in order to allow believers to recognize one another during times of persecution. Some people, mostly children, also use the gesture to excuse their telling of a lie. It may have it's roots in the belief that the power of the Christian cross might save one from being sent to hell for telling a lie.

A similar belief is that crossing one's fingers invalidates a promise being made. The gesture is also used to express two people being close friends with the accompanying phrase, "They are like this." In 16th century England, people crossed their fingers to ward off evil. They also did it when someone sneezed or coughed.

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The Japanese equivalent of 'LOL' is 'W'

If you've seen a Japanese comment or message around you may notice the letter "w" randomly sprawled out in an otherwise foreign comment. While the Latin character W is used,W actually stands for "Warau"' the Japanese for "laugh". The kanji for laugh/warau (笑) is used in the same way.

Here's how you say LOL in other languages:

• Mdr: Both in French and Esperanto. In French it stands for "mort de rire" (die of laughter)and in Esperanto "multe da ridoj" (lots of laughs)
• חחח/ההה: In Hebrew. Putting these letters together makes de word khakhakha / hahaha.
• Mkm: In Afghanistan, it means "ma khanda mikonom," which translates to "I am laughing"
• Ha3: In Malaysia, people write ha3 to shorten "hahaha"
• Jajaj: With or without the accent mark, it's the Spanish way of writing Hahaha.

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Ever wondered where the term jaywalking came from?

In America, the term jaywalking refers to the illegal crossing of a pedestrian across a road. There are actually penalties for the crime should you be caught, yet they are rarely enforced. Jaywalking is a compound word.

In the early 1900’s a “jay” was a person who lived in the country, was not the most intelligent, and naïve about federal laws. This type of person would have no respect for the traffic laws that govern the country, yet were rarely enforced in the country, and would thus have no knowledge of the rule banning pedestrian crossing. Over the years, this word became compounded with “walking” and so a modern day jaywalker is technically an ignorant country person who doesn’t realize they are crossing the street illegally!

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