h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

That´s one I had never known - thanks CZ. Ex America semper aliquid novi.

My Latin is limited to things like "quando omni flunkus moritati".

My tummy doesn't speak Latin

My Hovercraft is full of eels.

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As a stomach is not a noise, I believe that onomatopoeia is for words like 'splash', 'bang', not 'borborygmus' (but someone might correct me on this as I'm not 100% sure about this).

Stomach growling isn't a noice? Then you haven't heard the protests of my stomach when it's ravenous - it growls so loudly that people near me will start looking around for the source of the noise, wondering what it is. Feeling embarrassed, I usually look around searchingly too

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Stomach growling is a noise, but a stomach isn't.

"Stomach growling is a noise"

Yeah. Especially when your girlfriend has shelled out megamoney for the concert tickets.

Kzwg, it's a good idea to read things properly before saying they're wrong. The post did not say that borborygmus was the word for 'stomach' but the word for 'stomach growling'. Which is a noise.

From Wonkypedia:
<<Borborygmus (plural borborygmi) (pronounced [&#716;borb&#601;&#712;r&#618;&#609;m&#601;s]) (from Greek &#946;&#959;&#961;&#946;&#959;&#961;&#965;&#947;&#956;&#972;&#962 also known as stomach growling, or rumbling, is the rumbling sound produced by the movement of gas through the intestines of animals, including humans. The word borborygmus is an onomatopoeia for this rumbling.>>

Useless fact: I forgot that Hootoo doesn't like non-ASCII characters very much.

I just love the plural... it sounds rather like a rude thing one might say when one's stomach growls. "Borboryg ME!"

Quite good at descriptive language the old Greeks were. "Barbarian" is someone foreign whose language sounds like "baah baah".

Are you sure about that, Pit? I thought I heard another explanation of the origins of that recently (it was Greek, but not based on the language) If it comes back to me, I'll post it here.

Most grateful if you could. I once had half of Greece sleepless because one word by Homer - and as I don´t speak ancient Greek and my friends´ family no German...oh well.

Every iPhone in every iPhone advert shows the time at 9:42.
Every iPad ad will most likely display 9:41.

And every phone number in Hollywood movies has a 555 prefix.

The area code for Leith in Edinburgh is 555.

It's not just Hollywood movies. Any phone number given in a TV series made in the US will have a 555 prefix. This is because the 555 prefix isn't used in the US. Giving numbers this prefix stops people dialling the number to see who they get. (Yes, there are people that have tried in the past.)

Thanks CD. GOOD one - completely inconvertible into cash, but nice to know.