The English language adds about 1,000 new words every year.

The word 'cereal' comes from Ceres, the Roman goddess of grain and harvest.

The word 'freelance' comes from medieval mercenaries who offered their 'free lances' for hire.

Some languages have no word for 'left' and 'right' — speakers always use cardinal directions (north, south, east, west).

All human languages have nouns and verbs — but many lack adjectives or other categories found in English.

Urdu and Hindi are mutually intelligible in speech but use entirely different scripts — Nastaliq and Devanagari.

The Hawaiian alphabet has only 13 letters.

The word 'panic' derives from Pan, the Greek god — his terrifying shout was said to cause irrational fear.

The ampersand (&) was once the 27th letter of the English alphabet.