The universal language

"OK" is the most frequently spoken word on the planet, and these 9 follow

Learning languages is hard. But, fortunately, some terms rooted in daily universal experiences don't change much when crossing borders. If you say "mama, "papa," "taxi," or "banana," anywhere in the world, they’ll recognize those nouns immediately —even if the context provided is entirely blurry. The question is: Why did these words barely change over time and across different languages? Let’s explore the stories behind the most spoken words on the planet.

"OK" is the most spoken word on the planet. And it started as a typo joke. In 1839, the initials "O.K." were first published in the Boston Morning Post, meant as an abbreviation for "oll korrect" — a popular slang misspelling of "all correct."

Following that gag, politics intervened. In 1840, President Martin Van Buren's reelection supporters formed "O.K. Clubs" across the country, since Van Buren was nicknamed "Old Kinderhook" after his hometown in upstate New York. From there, telegraphs carried it coast to coast, and eventually it spread from North America all the way to the Moon, where Buzz Aldrin spoke it after the Apollo 11 landing.

Is it a real word? According to science, it is. In 2013, researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics investigated "huh?" in naturally occurring conversations across ten languages and presented evidence for two claims. One, the term is universal. Two, it is genuinely a word.

They later expanded the study to 31 spoken languages from around the world and found that all of them have a word with a nearly identical sound and function as the English "huh?" With all its nuances and differences, most human languages on Earth independently arrived at similar rising syllables for not understanding something in conversation.

Why do unrelated languages, spoken by people who never met, use almost identical words for "mother" and "father"? In Swahili: mama. In Polish: mama. In Mandarin Chinese: māma. In Quechua, spoken in the Andes of South America: mama. This mystery puzzled linguists for generations.

This isn’t a case of cognates (words borrowed from one language to another). The answer here lies in babies: "mama" and "papa" are among the easiest sounds to produce, because they combine bilabial consonants and open vowels. "Mmm" is often the first consonant babies experiment with.

The term "hello" had floated around English since the 1820s, mainly as a shout to get someone’s attention, like "hey" or "oi." But it was barely more than that before telephones existed.

Then, in 1876, Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone, and it was time to decide what callers should say when they picked up. Bell himself suggested the traditional nautical hail, "Ahoy." It was Thomas Edison who suggested "Hello!" in a letter dated 1877. By 1889, telephone operators had become widely known as "hello-girls." By then, the greeting had jumped to everyday conversation, and eventually every language on Earth picked up a version of it.

It is said that "Coca-Cola" is one of the most recognizable terms on the entire planet, much like the word "OK." This makes sense: the soft drink is sold in more than 200 countries. The name wasn’t the result of a marketing team or a focus group. It was coined in 1886 by the company’s bookkeeper, Frank M. Robinson, who derived it from the drink's two original ingredients: coca leaf and kola nut.

The drink was invented in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1886 by Dr. John S. Pemberton, who originally marketed it as a medicinal tonic. Today, approximately 1.9 billion servings of Coca-Cola beverages are consumed each day, so wherever in the world you are, the brand needs absolutely no introduction.

The word "coffee" has traveled far. Its story starts in the Ethiopian highlands with a by-now popular legend that depicts a 9th-century goat herder who noticed his goats wouldn’t sleep after eating berries from a certain bush. Thus, the idea of the drink made from those berries spread in Ethiopia.

From there, it moved to Yemen, where it was documented in a 15th-century text as a drink made from roasted coffee beans. It was assigned the Arabic word qahwa, which traveled with the drink. The product was traded by the Ottomans, who influenced several other languages, and from it derived the Italian caffè, the Dutch koffie, and the French café. So, the term has mutated slightly in each language, but it remains similar enough to identify it easily all over the world.

Every night, hundreds of millions of people all over the world put on a Persian garment with a Persian name. The word "pajamas" comes from the Persian pay-jāma, a compound of pay (foot or leg) and jāma (garment). In 15th-century Persia, it referred to loose trousers worn by men and women for comfort, and the term entered English in the 18th century when British colonists encountered the garment in India.

But the original pajamas were not sleepwear for a long time. Victorian high society adopted them as fashionable, exotic loungewear, and it was by the early 20th century that the two-piece sleeping suit had spread across the Western world. Today, most countries in the world have very similar names for this garment.

"Safari" is the name for a very specific activity. For many tongues in the world, the word itself conjures jeeps, binoculars, lions, and zebras.

But its original meaning was distant from the current one. It comes from the Arabic safara, which means "to travel." In Swahili, safari simply means any kind of journey, not just a wildlife expedition. For the English language, it was first recorded by explorer Sir Richard Francis Burton in the Journal of the Royal Geographical Society in 1859. British colonists in East Africa understood the word to apply to hunting expeditions, and, by the middle of the 20th century, Hollywood had cemented its modern image with films romanticizing the African bush.

Today, Apple’s decision to name its search engine "Safari" brings the term closer to its original meaning than to the one related to wildlife exploration.

Banana is one of the most consumed fruits on Earth, and its name has traveled with it. The word "banana" first appeared in English in the 1590s, borrowed by Spanish or Portuguese explorers from a West African word, possibly from the Wolof language, spoken in what is today Senegal and Gambia.

Most historians sustain that Africans began harvesting the fruit at least 4,500 years ago. When Portuguese and Spanish ships began trading across the world in the 15th and 16th centuries, they encountered the fruit, borrowed its African name, and carried both across the Atlantic. Today, the word sounds remarkably similar in many languages: banana in English, Spanish, Italian, and German; banane in French; 바나나 (banana) in Korean.

From Buenos Aires to Bangkok, you can step off a plane having never spoken a word of the local language, hold out your hand, and say one word: "Taxi." You will get the exact same thing. But the story of this two-syllable word is a tangle of countries and languages.

The original word was "taximeter," coined by German inventor Friedrich W. G. Bruhn in 1891. This was a device that measured the fare by distance. It was the French who shortened taximètre to taxi. A company imported them to New York under the market name "Taxicab" and decided to paint them yellow, since it was the most visible color. From there, both the short name and the iconic color stuck. Today, it is a symbol universally shared that you’ll find in every major city.

The truth about your brain

You won’t believe what happens in your brain while you sleep

Image: Milad Fakurian

Your brain is one of the most powerful and mysterious organs in your body. It controls everything from your thoughts to your emotions and even processes information at lightning speed. But how much do you really know about it? Some long-believed myths about the brain have been debunked, while other surprising facts reveal just how incredible this organ truly is. Get ready to be amazed by these fascinating brain facts!

Image: Natasha Connell

You’ve probably heard this one before, but it’s completely false! While it’s true that not all parts of the brain fire at the same time, imaging studies show that most regions are active throughout the day, even when we sleep.

Your brain is constantly working, controlling bodily functions and emotions, and processing information. So next time someone says you’re only using 10% of your brain, you can confidently tell them that’s just a myth!

Image: Aarón Blanco Tejedor

Here’s a weird fact: While your brain processes pain signals from the rest of your body, it has no pain receptors of its own. This is why surgeons can perform brain surgery on conscious patients without causing them pain.

However, the membranes and tissues surrounding the brain do have pain receptors, which is why headaches and brain injuries can be so excruciating.

Image: Usman Yousaf

How come we have headaches if the brain has no pain receptors? Well, that’s because headaches are triggered by chemical activity in the brain, changes in nerves and blood vessels, and even fluctuating serotonin levels.

In some cases, hormones like estrogen can also play a role, which explains why migraines are more common in women.

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Dreams are proof that your brain never rests! (Warning: this fact can make you feel exhausted.) While you sleep, your limbic system, that is, the part of the brain that deals with emotions, becomes especially active, which is why dreams often feel so intense.

On average, humans experience four to seven dreams per night, even if we don’t always remember them. And what about that scary nightmare about falling? Well, you can thank your amygdala, the brain’s fear center, for that one.

Image: Brett Jordan

Have you ever walked into a room and instantly forgotten what you were after? That’s because short-term memory only lasts about 20-30 seconds! That’s not enough!

Your brain holds a limited amount of information in its active state before deciding whether to store it or discard it. Ironically, we can’t really choose what makes the cut, but we do hope these facts stay with you!

Image: BUDDHI Kumar SHRESTHA

That sharp, icy pain when you eat something too cold? It’s your brain’s way of telling you to slow down! Officially called sphenopalatine ganglioneuralgia, a brain freeze happens when cold food or drinks rapidly chill the blood vessels in your throat, causing them to constrict and then rapidly expand. This sends pain signals to your brain, warning you of the sudden temperature shift. It’s annoying, but it’s actually your body trying to protect itself!

Image: Josh Riemer

You didn’t need us to tell you, but let’s look at the details: The average person has between 12,000 and 60,000 thoughts per day. What’s even more interesting? 95% of those thoughts are the same ones you had yesterday. Is that not surprising enough? Hear this out: 80% of them tend to be negative. That’s because our brains are wired for survival, constantly analyzing risks and potential dangers.

Image: Terry Vlisidis

Even though it only makes up about 2% of your body weight, your brain employs a major quantity of energy! It consumes 20% of your oxygen and blood supply, making it one of the most demanding organs in your body.

If your brain goes without oxygen for just five minutes, brain cells start dying, leading to irreversible damage. This is why deep breathing and cardiovascular exercise are great for brain health!

Image: Alexander Andrews

Do you know that feeling when you hit the back of your head and see stars? That’s because your occipital lobe, which controls vision, is located at the back of your brain. If you get hit there, your brain momentarily misfires, causing flashes of light.

Interestingly, your brain processes vision on the opposite side; while your right brain controls your left eye, your left brain controls your right eye. It’s one of the many ways the brain operates in a complex way.

Image: Rodion Kutsaiev

Believe it or not, your brain generates between 12 and 25 watts of electricity when you’re awake. If you can’t really grasp how powerful that is, check this out: It’s enough to power a small light bulb! Your brain’s electrical activity is what allows neurons to send signals at speeds of up to 260 miles per hour.

Image: Robina Weermeijer

Your brain may be the fattiest organ in your body, consisting of at least 60% fat! This is why consuming healthy fats, like omega-3s and omega-6s present in fish, for example, is essential for brain health.

Healthy fats stabilize brain cell walls, reduce inflammation, and support cognitive function. So go ahead and enjoy that avocado toast, it’s food for your brain!

Image: Robina Weermeijer

It’s not just your memory that fades over time; the brain itself physically shrinks as one gets older. It continues developing until your late 40s, but after that, it slowly decreases in size.

Now, size doesn’t equal intelligence, so a smaller brain doesn’t necessarily mean a less capable one. Staying mentally active, exercising, and eating brain-boosting foods can help keep it in top shape!

Image: Lisa Yount

We often think of cholesterol as bad, but your brain actually depends on it! In fact, 25% of your body’s cholesterol is stored in your brain, where it helps with learning and memory. However, unlike other organs, the brain can’t absorb cholesterol from the blood, it has to produce its own. So, while too much cholesterol in the body can be harmful, the right amount is vital for brain function. At least you can use that as an excuse to get that burger!