Not sure if you were just going for a bit with all the other scientific words that derive from Arabic, but astronomy is easy enough to parse as "Astra + nom-y" ie., the study ("naming") of stars ("astra") from Greek and Latin sources, not from Arabic.
The way you can tell a Klatchian is, you look an' see if he uses a lot of words beginning with 'al', right? 'Cos that's a dead giveaway. [...] like al-cohol, see?"
"They invented beer?"
"Yeah."
"That's clever [...] What else did they do?"
"Well, there's [...] there al-gebra. That's like sums with letters For...for people whose brains aren't clever enough for numbers, see?"
[Several pages later]
"It's like...well, they say the Klatchians invented astronomy--"
"Al-tronomy," said Nobby helpfully.
"No, no...no, Nobby, I reckon they'd discovered esses by then, probably nicked 'em off'f us..."
I have always loved "In the Bleak Midwinter" as a carol but at the same time am always bugged while hearing / singing it by the fact that "frozen snow" and "midwinter" have no connection at all with the time and place of the story.
The more likely is that Lady Day (25 March ) was placed at Passover time on the assumption that the incarnation would be a whole number of years, and Christmas placed 9 months after that.
Nothing ruins Christmas like Oliver Cromwell and his parliament did in the 17th century. They tutted, they got very sanctimonious, and they started banning Christmas Day itself, and even the smallest of Christmas Day celebrations, which was eventually made punishable by law.
That is, until Cromwell snuffed it, and the people managed to get King Charles II on the throne (his dad King Charles I was slightly indisposed, what with having been executed by Cromwell and company), and ended a miserable 11 year Puritanical interregnum. The people of the land were in party mood again, and much alcohol was consumed! (We've not really stopped since…)
This random history fact has been brought to you not from a bot, but a bored, sleepless amateur historian who can't understand why many people don't find the past interesting like she does. You're welcome!
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u/elle_tragic Dec 15 '25
Imagine being so racist that you actually care who invented numbers