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Word
Where does Smithereens (the word) come from?
Smithereens comes from Irish smidirín, 'a tiny fragment', from smiodar, 'fragment', plus the Irish diminutive -ín, the same ending as in colleen. It turns up in English in the early 1800s.
More Words
Word
Tarantula (the word)
📍 Taranto, Italy
The name comes from Taranto in southern Italy, home of a wolf spider whose bite was popularly blamed for 'tarantism', a frenzy said to be cured by dancing. English later gave the name to big hairy American spiders.
Word
Bungalow (the word)
📍 Bengal (India & Bangladesh)
Bungalow comes from Hindi bangla, 'Bengali', short for a low, thatched 'house in the Bengal style'. English speakers in India were using it by the 1670s.
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Word
Boondocks (the word)
📍 Southern Luzon, Philippines
This all-American slang for the middle of nowhere is Tagalog: US soldiers in the Philippines in the early 20th century picked up bundok, 'mountain', and brought it home as 'the boondocks'.
More from Europe
Game
Pétanque
📍 La Ciotat, France
Pétanque was born in La Ciotat, near Marseille, around 1907–1910, when rheumatic player Jules Lenoir could no longer run before throwing. Its name comes from Provençal for “feet planted”.
Food
Peach Melba
📍 London (the Savoy), England
French chef Auguste Escoffier created Peach Melba at London's Savoy Hotel in 1892 or 1893 to honour Australian soprano Nellie Melba, then starring at Covent Garden.
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Invention
Aerosol spray can
📍 Oslo, Norway
Norwegian chemical engineer Erik Rotheim of Oslo applied for the first aerosol spray can patent in 1926. Americans later made spray cans famous with WWII 'bug bombs' that sprayed insecticide against malaria mosquitoes.