Why is a wiener on a bun called a “hot dog”?
The evolution of the sausage began in Babylon, and modern incarnations include the Viennese wiener and the frankfurter, which was shaped in the form of a Frankfurt German butcher’s pet dachshund. The Dachshund Sausage Dog became very popular in America, where the bun was added in 1904. In 1906, cartoonist Ted Dorgan couldn’t spell dachshund, so he simply named his drawing of a dog on a bun covered in mustard a hot dog, and it’s been called that ever since.

Why are drinking glasses sometimes called “tumblers”?
In 1945, Earl Tupper produced his first polyethylene plastic sevenounce bathroom tumbler, so called because it could fall or tumble without breaking. But a “tumbler” drinking glass had already been around for centuries before Tupperware. It was specially designed with a round or pointed bottom so that it couldn’t stand upright and had to be drunk dry before it could be laid on its side — otherwise it would tumble and spill.

Is flavour the only reason that lemon is served with fish?
Although lemon enhances the taste of fish, that isn’t the original reason the two were served together. Six hundred years ago, lemon was introduced with fish as a safety precaution. People believed that if someone swallowed a bone, a mouthful of lemon juice would dissolve it. We now know that this isn’t the case, but we also understand why they believed it. Sucking on a lemon causes the throat muscles to contort, helping to dislodge any stuck bone.

Why is alcohol called “spirits” and empty beer bottles “dead soldiers”?
After a bachelor party there are a lot of “dead soldiers,” or empty beer bottles, lying around. They are dead because the alcohol, or spirit, has left their bodies. The spirit, like the soul, was considered the independent and invisible essence of everything physical and is quite separate from the material fact. A beer bottle without its alcohol has lost its spirit and, just like any other creation human or otherwise, has dearly departed.

Why do we describe warm food as “piping hot”?
Today, piping hot usually means comfortably warm food straight from your own oven to the table, but it took a few centuries to evolve into that meaning. There was a time when everyone bought freshly baked bread every day from a neighbourhood or village baker. When the bread was ready, the baker would signal from his front door by blowing on a pipe or horn, which caused people to hurry to get bread before it ran out and gave us the expression “piping hot.”