Learn One Thing A Day

Have you ever wondered what's the etymology, i.e. origin of the Italian greeting word " Ciao " ? Or alternatively, as you will soon discover, what does it servus mean in German? Well, as I friend of mine told me, ciao derives from the Venetian dialect " s ciavo " or " s ciao " that means, wait-for-it ... slave! Basically, " ciao " is nothing but the shorter version of  " sono vostro schiavo " literally " I'am your slave " but it doesn't sound so weird when you translate it in the much more appropriate  " I am at your service ". Surprised? Well, maybe it can help you knowing that in Bavaria (south Germany), friends greet each other using the word  " servus ". I have studied (and mostly forgotten) Latin but I clearly remember that servus in that language means "slave", so, again, a short version for " I am at your service "! Interesting eh? Sources: My friend V...

Nature can be really surprising! Ladies and Gentlemen here is the amazing okapi! It lives in central Africa (=Congo) and it is amazing for at least of a couple of reasons: 1) It looks like a photoshopped animal, doesn't it? I would say the combination of a giraffe and a zebra! 2) It is a kind of living fossil! Indeed it the closest relative of the prehistoric giraffes - the palaetragines - even closer than the giraffe! Basically when the palaestragines were roaming the earth (15 millions years ago), evolution favoured the ones who could reach tall trees. The descendants of those palaetragines are the nowadays giraffes, well suited for munching leaves from the acacia trees that grew across the plains of Africa. However some palaestragines moved into the forest and where they had never to change much to survive. The okapi is the descendant of them, a very close descendant. PS Since it lives in Congo, the Okapi is on the 50 cents Congolese banknote: (sourc...