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Strange Origins of Common Words and Phrases & Meet Your Future Self

Something You Should Know

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The History of Placebo

The word placebo means I will please in Latin. It came to refer to a drug or treatment that would make someone feel good, even if there was no actual medicinal effect. Scratch is the word for the starting line in things like running and in cricket. We don't know exactly when it became a term for food, but the earliest evidence that has been unearthed points to a 1946 New York Times article about cooking from scratch.

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