Story Behind Words
Words in English are not just random letters joined together and given names. Most of the words have a long history associated with them, and the story tells a lot about the word and its meaning. Let us have a look at some of the words and their stories.
- ASSASIN
- During the time of crusades the member of a certain Muslim sect engaged people to terrorize their Christian enemies by performing murders as a religious duty. These acts were carried out under the influence of hashish and the killers came to be known as Hashshashin. Hashshashin evolved to become assassin.
- NEWS
- Most of the people think that news is the acronym for north, east, west and south. So, for all of them, it is not the acronym of north, east, west and south. Rather, no words before the 20th century were acronyms. Rather, acronyms are part of the 20th century. So then what does news stands for? Well, news comes from the English word new, meaning something that has not existed before.
- IVY LEAGUE
- Ivy league colleges are dream colleges for many. But do you know what they mean? Well, Ivy League is originally a sportswriter’s term and was used in reference to the unofficial conference of teams also know as the old ten. The teams were army, brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, navy, Pennsylvania, Princeton and Yale. In 1940, army and navy dropped out of the association and the membership has remained the same ever since. The name derives from ivy that supposedly climbs the walls at these venerable institutions.