It’s by no means rare for words to change their meanings over time, but sometimes those changes can take words in quite bizarre or unexpected directions, leaving them quite some distance from where they started out. In fact, cast an etymological eye over the words in the dictionary, and you’ll soon uncover some very odd tales indeed. 

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Girls, you discover, could once be boys. Your nephew was originally your grandson. The queen was your wife. A shampoo was a massage. Clouds were rocks. Noon was three o’clock in the afternoon. Once upon a time, you could even eat potpourri, wear alcohol, paint with pencils, get drenched in a tiddlywink, play hijinks with dice, and end the night looking utterly raunchy.

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100 of the English language’s most peculiar etymological histories—precisely like these—are collected in The Accidental Dictionary.