The word 'mortgage' comes from French for 'death pledge' — the debt dies when paid off.

Latin gave birth to French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, and Romanian — the Romance languages.

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

The longest word in the English language in a major dictionary is 'pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis' at 45 letters.

The symbol '#' has many names: hash, pound, number sign, octothorpe — 'octothorpe' was coined as a joke by a Bell Labs engineer.

There are languages with no word for specific colors — some languages group blue and green as one color.

The dot over the lowercase letter 'i' is called a tittle.

Shakespeare invented over 1,700 words still used in English today, including 'bedroom,' 'lonely,' and 'generous.'

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