Zilch, Scram and Salary- What’s The Connection?

Zilch- Many people consider this word to be slang, but it is actually recognised in the Oxford dictionary as being a real word, but even the online dictionary is un-sure of where it came from! Ever heard of a Mr. Neil Armstrong? thought so, well this word was created by him! He was asked to confrim the reading on one of the ships dials, ground control new the gauge must be zero, but, presumably out of being bored stiff by such a mondane task, Armstrong confirmed the dial as reading ‘Zilch’, and clearly, the word caghut on. When on the moon he famously said ‘one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind’ but he also said ‘good luck Mr Gorsky!’ the reason for this is quite amazing- when he was younger he had heard his nextdoor neighbour (Mr Gorsky) talking to his wife, he heard his wife sau ‘Oral sex? Oral sex?! The day we have oral sex is the day man lands on the moon!’ Wonder if she was true to her word?

SCRAM- Technically an abreviation, I know, but the stories a good one. The letter S-C-R-A-M appear on each one of the worlds nuclear reactors, they are printed on a button that, when pushed, will lower control rods into the nuclear reactor, they are there as a saftey measure, to help steady the reactor incase it becomes unstable. Around 1930 in an American university one of the worlds first nuclear reactors was set up, and these control rods were dangled above by a rope, the rope was held in place by a pully system and if need by the someone could pull one end of the rope and lower the control rods into the reactor. But, if this was too slow then everyone was in danger, so the fail-safe was a man with an axe, he could chop the rope and quickly drop the rod into the reactor, his proprer title was: Saftey Control Rod Axe Man, hence SCRAM!

Salary- Fairly simple, but still- In ancient rome salt was a higly valued commditiy, and workers were often payed with it (this is where we get the saying ‘he’s not worth his salt’ from), this word has just evolved with time and become salsry, but still has the same meaning.

I liked t hese three, got any better ones? Drop a comment with the stroy then!