Thursday, February 5, 2009

N is for Nincompoop

I've been tagged by Life at Willow Manor to select a letter from the alphabet and write about it. I wanted to write about my beloved Spanish letter Ñ, but this blog is in English. So N will do, besides N is a wonderful letter specially when written the wrong way by children.
The letter N is the 14th letter of the English alphabet. It is believed to have developed from a snake hieroglyphic used by the Egyptians. Not long afterwards the Phoenicians adopted the letter into their alphabet. The Hebrews and the Greek followed suit. N represents the alveolar nasal sound in human speech. Only a handful of languages on earth lack this sound. It is the perfect letter to take to the Nth degree, obviously:


Nincompoop- a silly, foolish and useless person.
Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Them Goodbye- According to Wikipedia is a song that is often chanted by fans near the end of a contest to signify that victory is all but assured.
Nitroglycerin- a colorless, oily, explosive liquid.
Navratilova- Last name of a famous woman tennis player.
Nanotechnology- According to many the longest word starting with N.
Na Nu Na Nu- Alien greeting (Mork & Mindy TV series)






















N in sign language




Nantucket





Narnia

the Nanny