In the United Kingdom, Australia and many other parts of the world, the word ‘flat’ is used to mean an apartment or a house. It is derived from the Scottish word ‘flet’ which means the interior of a house. In Old English, flet means house or floor. The word flat may also be linked to the “flatness” of the abode.

A rat race is a term used for an endless, self-defeating or pointless pursuit. It conjures up the image of the futile efforts of a lab rat trying to escape while running around a maze or in a wheel. In an analogy to the modern city, many rats in a single maze expend a lot of effort running around, but …

The term manhole originated between 1785 and 1795. A manhole is a hole, usually with a round cover, through which a person may enter a sewer, drain, steam boiler, etc, especially one located in a city street. The word is a combination of two words — ‘man’ and hole’. However in today’s era of gender neutrality, some would argue that …

The word chutzpah entered the English language in the late 19th century. It is supposed to have been derived from khutspe, belonging to the Yiddish language. Khuptse means impudence or gall. Khutspe itself was derived from the Hebrew word hutspah. Today, chutzpah means supreme self-confidence, courage bordering on arrogance, audacity or nerve. The words chutzpa, hutzpah and hutzpa are its …

Someone who hem-haws around a topic or speaks indirectly about a topic before getting to the point might be said to have beat around the bush. Telling someone not to beat around the bush is to tell them to be direct and get to the point. Have you ever wondered about the origin of this phrase? I have compiled a …

The copyright symbol, designated by © (a circled “C”), is the symbol used in copyright notices for works other than sound recordings (which are indicated with the ℗ symbol). The use of the symbol is described in United States copyright law, and, internationally, by the Universal Copyright Convention. The C stands for copyright. In the United States, the copyright notice …

Philip Marlowe. He first appeared in The Big Sleep. Chandler had been writing for a popular periodical entitled Black Mask for some years when he wrote his first novel The Big Sleep in 1939. It met with great success, so much so that Chandler continued Philip Marlowe’s bleak adventures in Farewell My Lovely, The High Window, The Lady in the …

It is Father Brown and his exiting adventures were written by Gilbert Keith Chesterton who was born in London, May 29, 1874. Next to Sherlock Holmes, Father Brown is probably the most original and eccentric detective in English fiction. He is timid and absent minded, and in his appearance is short and dumpy, with a round innocent face. He carries …

The Kuppuswamy scale was proposed by Kuppuswamy in India in 1976. It is widely used to measure the socio-economic-status of an individual in the urban community and is based on three variables — education, occupation and income. Marks are provided for different levels of qualifications, occupations and family incomes per month. According to the scores obtained, the socio-economic classes are divided …

The Hubbert peak theory posits that for any given geographical area, from an individual oil-producing region to the planet as a whole, the rate of petroleum production tends to follow a bell-shaped curve. It is one of the primary theories on peak oil. The theory is named after American geophysicist M. King Hubbert, who created a method of modeling the …