David Wallechinsky - The Book of Lists

According to an old English time unit, a moment takes 1½ minutes. In medieval times, a moment was either 1/40 or 1/50 of an hour, but by rabbinical reckoning a moment is precisely 1/1,080 of an hour.

The United Nations Food and Agricultural Organisation estimates that all the tea in China in 2003 amounted to 800,345 metric tons.

Although the breadth of a hair varies from head to head, the dictionary definition of hair’s breadth is 1/48 in.

The depth of human skin ranges from 1/100 in. on the eyelid to 1/5 in. on the back.

A 1,200-lb horse eats about 15 lb of hay and 9 lb of grain each day. This amounts to 1/50 of its own weight each day, or 7 times its own weight each year. The real gluttons in the animal kingdom are birds, who consume more than 90 times their own weight in food each year.

The amount paid by magazines for photographs and for written articles varies widely. Both Travel & Leisure magazine and Harper’s magazine pay an average of $350 for a photograph and $1 a word for articles. Based on this scale, a picture is worth 350 words. When The Book of Lists first studied this matter in 1978, a picture was worth 2000 words.

The average wink, or corneal reflex blink, lasts 1/10 sec.

When members of The Book of Lists staff were asked to say ‘Jack Robinson’, their speed varied from ½ to 1 sec. It is acknowledged that this may not be a representative sample of the world population.

Sales figures for the International House of Pancakes show that their 1,164 US restaurants sold a total of 700,000,000 pancakes in 2003.

Time immemorial is commonly defined as beyond the memory of any living person, or a time extending so far back as to be indefinite. However, for the purposes of English law, a statute passed in 1275 decreed that time immemorial was any point in time prior to 1189 — the year when Richard I began his reign.

According to Charles L. Hogue of the Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History, this figure necessarily depends upon the size of the grasshopper. For the average grasshopper, the knee-high measurement would be about ½ in.

The record for the greatest height attained by a single kite on a single line is 14,509 feet. The kite was flown by a group headed by Richard Synergy at Kincardine, Ontario, Canada, on August 12, 2000.

The fastest bullet is a calibre .50 Saboted Light Armor Penetrator-Tracer M962. Used in M2 machine guns, it travels 4,000 feet (.75 mile) per second. The fastest non-military bullet is the .257 Weatherby Spire Point, which travels 3,825 feet (.72 mile) per second.

In chemistry, water is given a specific gravity, or relative density, of 1.00, because it is used as the standard against which all other densities are measured. By comparison, blood has a specific gravity of 1.06 — only slightly thicker than water.

The largest king’s ransom in history was raised by Richard the Lionheart to obtain his release from the Holy Roman Emperor Henry VI in 1194. The English people were forced to contribute almost 150,000 marks to free their sovereign. Nearly as large a ransom was raised by Atahualpa, King of the Incas, when he offered Pizarro a roomful of gold and two roomfuls of silver for his release in 1532. At today’s prices, the ransom would be worth more than £4 million (or $7 million). Unfortunately, it was not sufficient to buy Atahualpa his freedom; he was given a mock trial and executed.

Negative Form Positive Form

1. Inadvertent Advertent (giving attention; heedful)

2. Analgesia Algesia (sensitiveness to pain)

3. Antibiotic Biotic (of or relating to life)

4. Unconscionable Conscionable (conscientious)

5. Disconsolate Consolate (consoled, comforted)

6. Incorrigible Corrigible (correctable)

7. Uncouth Couth (marked by finesse, polish, etc; smooth)

8. Indelible Delible (capable of being deleted)

9. Nondescript Descript (described; inscribed)

10. Indomitable Domitable (tamable)

11. Ineffable Effable (capable of being uttered or expressed)

12. Inevitable Evitable (avoidable)

13. Feckless Feckful (effective; sturdy; powerful)

14. Unfurl Furl (to draw in and secure to a staff)

15. Disgruntle Gruntle (to put in good humour)

16. Disgust Gust (inclination; liking)

17. Antihistamine Histamine (a crystalline base that is held to be responsible for the dilation and increased permeability of blood vessels which play a major role in allergic reactions)

18. Disinfectant Infectant (an agent of infection)

19. Illicit Licit (not forbidden by law; allowable)

20. Immaculate Maculate (marked with spots; besmirched)

21. Innocuous Nocuous (likely to cause injury; harmful)

22. Deodorant Odorant (an odorous substance)

23. Impeccable Peccable (liable or prone to sin)

24. Impervious Pervious (being of a substance that can be penetrated or permeated)

25. Implacable Placable (of a tolerant nature; tractable)

26. Ruthless Ruthful (full of compassion or pity)

27. Insipid Sipid (affecting the organs of taste; savoury)

28. Unspeakable Speakable (capable of being spoken of)

29. Unwieldy Wieldy (strong;

Here are 18 words and phrases that have no equivalent in English; edited by the Book of Lists authors from Howard Rheingold’s They Have A Word For It , published by Sarabande.

The attempt to revive a dead love affair. Literally, ‘reheated cabbage’. The result of such a culinary effort is usually unworkable, messy and distasteful.

Unusual appetites and cravings of pregnant women. Dohada is a word older than the English language. There is a scientific basis for dohada: women who want to eat dirt (a condition called pica) or chalk, are attempting to ingest essential minerals.

A gift brought home from a husband to his wife after he has stayed out late. Literally, ‘dragon fodder’. In decades past, men went to bars on Saturday night with the wrapped gifts prepared in advance. This word can also be used for all gifts or acts performed out of guilt for having too much fun, such as gifts from employees to bosses, children to parents, students to teachers, and so on.

The brilliantly witty response to a public insult that comes into your mind only after you have left the party. Literally, ‘the spirit of the staircase’. Observes author Rheingold, ‘Sometimes, this feeling about what you ought to have said at a crucial moment can haunt you for the rest of your life.’

A mother who pushes her children into academic achievement. A derogatory term that literally means ‘education mama’. The pressure on Japanese students is severe and intense — but they are hardly the only victims of parental pushing. The American fad for using flashcards and the like, to create infant prodigies, is practised by fathers and mothers.