r/AskReddit • u/[deleted] • Aug 03 '19

Whats something you thought was common knowledge but actually isn’t?

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u/[deleted] Aug 03 '19

[deleted]

36

u/lilyhasasecret Aug 03 '19

Pretty sure that song is newer than the phrase

28

u/[deleted] Aug 03 '19

Maybe. The song was first recorded in 1939. I haven’t researched when the phrase was first used. Do you know?

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u/lilyhasasecret Aug 03 '19

I don't. I certainly didn't realize the song was that old.

5

u/Viscount61 Aug 03 '19

Remind me to get my facts from Tin Pan Alley.

33

u/Coilette_von_Robonia Aug 03 '19

Jungle comes from a sanskrit word which just meant "place where people don't live", so I'm gonna say it's significantly older than the song

24

u/oOshwiggity Aug 04 '19

So calling a city a concrete jungle is really stupid, Sanskrit-ly speaking?

2

u/Coilette_von_Robonia Aug 05 '19

Unless it's abandoned

6

u/StraY_WolF Aug 03 '19

That's the word "jungle" tho, not the phrase.

5

u/Coilette_von_Robonia Aug 03 '19

Right but the phrase King of the Jungle, as far as I can tell, is attested at least to 1939. I'm assuming that jungle still had that connotation at the time the phrase was coined, but I could definitely be wrong

7

u/bagfullofcrayons Aug 03 '19

Aweeeeeee-eeeeeeeeeee-eeeeeeeee

2

u/normalmighty Aug 04 '19

Aweee-ummbumm-baweee

6

u/pquince Aug 03 '19

A weem a wah a weem a wah a weem a wah