• The words “insane” and “insanity” are not recognized medical terms but rather legal ones.
  • The Latin term “et al.” is an abbreviation of “et alii” in its plurl form (meaning “and others”) and “et alius” in its singular form (meaning “and another”).
  • Unlike B.C. (before Christ) the abbreviation A.D. (Anno Domini, “Year of Our Lord,” not After Death) is properly placed in front of the year, hence, you get A.D. 500 rather than 500 A.D.
  • The bench in the middle of a Westminster parliament is 2 1/2 sword lengths long. This is to keep both the government and the opposition at least a sword’s length away from each other in case of a heated debate.
  • The word “freelance” comes from medieval times when a knight’s lance was free for hire and not pledged to any one lord.
  • The New Hampshire state motto of “Live Free or Die” is stamped on their license plates by prisoners housed in their Concord prison facility. North Carolina’s license plates bear the motto “First in Flight,” although they don’t report an increase in prison escapee attempts.
  • In Italy, it is illegal to craft coffins out of anything but wood or nutshells.
  • The dome in Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello home concealed a billiards room at a time when billiards were illegal in Virginia.
  • British Parliament proceedings are meant to be held in private, even though they are televised. So, if a member desires to have a secret session, he or she points to the public gallery and calls out “I spy strangers!”, whereupon the members vote that “strangers do withdraw.”
  • The word “lethologica” describes the state of not being able to remember the word you want.
  • In the early 1900′s, an elephant was actually tried, convicted, and hanged for murdering a politician’s daughter during a circus parade
  • The official name of the U.K. is the “United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.” It is also the second longest county name being forty-eight letters.