10 facts about the English Language

1 ) David Crystal, in his book the Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language, suggests that there are at least a million words in the English language. If all scientific terms were counted, the total could be two million, not including the names for organisms.

2) There are 170,000 words in the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary.

3) Over 60 percent of all English words have Greek or Latin roots.

 4) The word pet is borrowed from the Scots Gaelic word peat, meaning tame animal. The word shampoo is borrowed from the Indian (Hindi) word chāmpo, meaning head massage. The word tea is thought to come from the Chinese (Amoy) word te meaning tea.

 5) Shakespeare used around 20,000 different words. Estimates of Shakespeare’s vocabulary vary, as different people have different views on what counts as a word.

 6)  The word sandwich is said to have come into the English language in 1762 when John Montagu, the fourth Earl of Sandwich, ordered a waiter to bring him roast beef between two slices of bread. He was playing cards at the time and didn’t want to have to stop to eat so he asked for the meat to be placed between slices of bread so that his hands didn't get greasy.

7) The word set has 464 definitions. Go has 368, take 343.

8) The is the most commonly used word in English; of is the second and to is the third.

9) There aren't any words that rhyme with purple.

10) The first word spoken on the moon was OK.


Source: Cambridge University