Despite its name, the Aussie was developed by ranchers in the western United States in the 1800s, probably named after collies that came with sheep from Australia. A rodeo performer's trick dogs made it famous in the mid-1900s.
📍 Apolda, Thuringia, Germany
The Dobermann was first bred around 1890 in Apolda, in central Germany, by Louis Dobermann, a tax collector who also ran a dog pound. With dogs of many breeds at hand, he set out to create the ideal dog to protect him.
📍 Central Africa (Cameroon to the Congo)
Despite nicknames like 'Chinese water bamboo', lucky bamboo is not a bamboo and not from China: it's a dracaena that grows wild in Central Africa, from Cameroon to the Congo. Its scientific name honours Henry Sander, a German-born orchid grower in England.
📍 Kalahari, southern Africa (Botswana, Namibia & South Africa)
Meerkats live in the dry, open country of the Kalahari and Karoo in southern Africa. Some members of each group always stand sentry, and adults teach pups to eat scorpions by first removing the stinger.
📍 Central Mexico
Spanish tomate comes from tomatl in Nahuatl, the language of the Aztecs. Italy only received its first tomatoes around 1548 and called them pomi d'oro, 'golden apples'.
📍 Greenland
Anorak comes from Greenlandic anoraq, a hooded, waterproof jacket. English adopted it in 1924, and by the 1980s British slang also used it for a socially awkward nerd.
📍 Worcester, Massachusetts, USA
Candlepin bowling, with thin pins and a ball that fits in your palm, began around 1880 in Worcester, Massachusetts. You get three rolls per frame, and the knocked-down pins stay on the lane.