Term Referring facts
While investigating facts about Term Referring, I found out little known, but curios details like:
In 1982, the comic strip The Far Side jokingly referred to the set of spikes on a Stegosaurus's tail as a "thagomizer". A paleontologist who read the comic realized there wasn't any official name for the spikes and began using the new word; Thagomizer is now the generally accepted term.
The term "pipe dream" is a reference to the insane dreams people have when smoking opium
In my opinion, it is useful to put together a list of the most interesting details from trusted sources that I've come across. Here are 50 of the best facts about Term Referring I managed to collect.
-
The term "Third World" originated during the cold war, and was used to refer to countries that were neither aligned with NATO (the "first world") or the Communist Bloc (the "second world"). Under the original definition, Sweden, Finland and Austria are "third world countries".
-
A Calvin and Hobbes comic from 1992 referred to the start of the universe as the Horrendous Space Kablooie, saying that "The Big Bang" was too boring. The term Horrendous Space Kablooie (or HSK) has since become popular among scientists, and has been used in books and university courses.
-
Siblings born within a year of each other are called "Irish twins", which was a derogatory term referring to poor Catholic families with many successive children
-
In Norway, people use the term "texas" as slang for "crazy". It doesn't refer to a person, but a chaotic atmosphere or state of mind, so saying a party "was totally crazy!" in Norwegian would be "det var helt texas!", which literally means "it was texas!"
-
The term "third world country" has nothing to do with poverty, it simply refers to countries after WW2 that did not align with either the Western US aligned coalition or the Soviet bloc.
-
In Japan, rōnin (the term for a masterless samurai) also nowadays refers to someone who is unemployed
-
Urban Dictionary has been used in many court cases to define slang terms that are not found in dictionaries and that some states' DMVs refer to it to determine if certain license plates are appropriate or not
-
in Japanese, there is a phrase bushu-suru (ブッシュする). In literal terms, this means "to do the bush thing," in reference to a bizarre 1992 incident where George HW Bush fell ill and vomited directly onto the Japanese prime minister.
-
The term Elefantenrennen, which is German for Elephant Race. It refers to when one large truck attempts to pass another with little to no speed difference, preventing anyone behind them from passing.
What is true about term referring?
You can easily fact check it by examining the linked well-known sources.
The Beastie Boys coined the term "mullet" to refer to a hairstyle in 1994 in their song "Mullet Head". No earlier use of the term "mullet" that refers to a hairstyle has been found.
The concept of using a card for purchases was described in 1887 by Edward Bellamy in his utopian novel Looking Backward. Bellamy used the term credit card eleven times in this novel, although this referred to a card for spending a citizen's dividend from the government, rather than borrowing. - source
The term 'Herd' refers to large groups of herbivores, if they are carnivores its a 'Pack.' - source
The term "Easter Egg" (referring to hidden secrets in movies, music, or video games) probably comes from The Rocky Horror Picture Show. While filming, the cast had an Easter egg hunt and apparently didn't find a few of them, which found there way into shots used in the final film.
Confirmed bachelor" used to be a term used to refer to homosexual men. - source
Because the NFL owns and enforces the trademark for the term "Super Bowl," almost all ads and commercial uses will instead reference "The Big Game" or something similar. Colbert even used "The Supurb Owl" in 2014.
"Banana Republic" was coined as a political term referring to a country(s) (Honduras and neighbors) that were exploited by a corporation (United Fruit Co.) for specific exports (yes, bananas). It is typically ruled by plutocracy and has a large poor working class that is also exploited.
The term “Suspension of disbelief,” defined as a "willingness to suspend one's critical faculties . . . for the sake of enjoyment" refers to one of Aristotle’s principles of theater in which the audience accepts fiction as reality so as to experience a catharsis.
The term "Sweet Death" refers to dying of hypothermia, because you feel an innocent desire to lie down and sleep. A certain feeling of wellness overcomes you. And with a sardonic ‘Mona Lisa’ smile on your face, you die.
The term "Walking Ghost" refers to the period of time shortly after an individual is exposed to toxic radiation when the victim appears perfectly healthy.
The term "Steatopygia" which refers to the genetic trait most notably found in African women that causes them to have large posteriors.
