Categories
military

Sniper

The word originated from British hunters who were good enough to shoot at these rare small Aftrican birds called ‘snipe’. They were awarded the term ‘sniper’. Later, the military adopted the term.

Categories
Everyday Life

Smithereens

Despite its American sound and its common use by the fiery cartoon character Yosemite Sam, ‘smithereens’ did not originate in American slang. Although no one is entirely positive about its precise origins, scholars think it is likely that ‘smithereens’ developed from the Irish Gaelic word ‘smidiriin,’ which means ‘little bits.’ That Irish word is believed to come from an even older term that means ‘fragment.’

Categories
Everyday Life

Sleep Tight

During Colonial times, the beds did not have box springs. Instead, all the feathers and other bed material were suspended by a series of criss-cross ropes tied to the bed frame.
Before the children would go to sleep, the mothers would remind them to ‘sleep tight’, or to tighten the ropes attached to the bed frame, so that the next morning, the ropes would not loosen so much that they would fall through the bed.

Categories
Religion

Sin

Most people think that the word ‘sin’ means that one has done a deed that is evil. The word arose from the Greeks, who used the term when an archer has missed his mark.
So, in essence, the word “sin” just means: “one has missed the mark.”

Categories
Life Oddities

Siamese Twins

The term was first used in 1829 to describe a popular sideshow act of two siblings from Southeast Asia that were joined at the stomach by a small stretch of skin.