Who were they?

Who was Pollyana? These 12 words derive from fictional characters

Credit: Emilio Sánchez Hernández

Giants, dreamers, and even a few villains: They all hide behind a handful of words that sprinkle our vocabulary even today. Who knew that in the 21st century we would still be using nods at heroes from Persian folktales or commedia dell’arte? In this list, we’ll explore 12 words that sprang from the pages of novels, plays, and myths because, first and foremost, they were fictional characters. Let’s dive in!

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Ever heard of R.U.R.? Rossum's Universal Robots is the play that gave us "robot." Written by Karel Čapek in 1920, it features mechanical beings called roboti designed to serve humans.

Čapek borrowed the term from the Czech word robota, meaning "forced labor." In the play, these robots rebel, causing global chaos. Čapek’s vision was groundbreaking and already cautionary.

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A serendipitous twist is one that is fortunate, delightful, and more importantly, unexpected, like discovering a $20 bill in an old coat. That rare word derives from The Three Princes of Serendip, a Persian fairy tale.

Serendip was an old name for Sri Lanka. In the tale, these princes were known for stumbling upon discoveries by chance. In 1754, Horace Walpole coined the term to describe their knack for happy accidents.

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Meet the ogre. This word stomped into our vocabulary thanks to Charles Perrault’s fairy tales, especially Puss in Boots. In the story, an ogre is a man-eating giant who can shapeshift.

Perrault likely borrowed the term from the Italian orco (meaning "demon") or Latin Orcus, a god of the underworld. Today, "ogre" describes anyone brutish or cruel—despite how popular or celebrated the ogre Shrek may have become.

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Are you annoyed when people misuse words? Enter Mrs. Malaprop. She’s the star of Richard Brinsley Sheridan’s 1775 play The Rivals. Known for hilariously mangling words, she’d say "pineapple" instead of "pinnacle," or "allegory" for "alligator."

Sheridan named her after the French phrase mal à propos ("inappropriate"). Her blunders gave us "malapropism," any unintentional—and funny—word substitution.

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The word "meander" comes from the Meander River in ancient Greece. Known for its winding path, it became a metaphor for aimless wandering. In mythology, Meander or Maiandros was the patron and deity who guarded this river.

Literature popularized the term, using it to describe any unpredictable journey or anecdote—or someone’s long-winded speech.

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You may remember the story of Pollyanna, the cheerful orphan from Eleanor H. Porter’s 1913 novel. She was the one who played the "glad game": Her goal was to find silver linings in every situation.

Her signature optimism was so relentless that "Pollyanna" became a tag for someone unrealistically cheerful, and maybe a bit naive.

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The word "zany" gestated in commedia dell’arte, a 16th-century Italian theater tradition. In these plays, zanni (a Venetian form of "Giovanni") were clownish servants who provided comic relief.

Over time, "zany" came to describe anyone too jokey or clownish. Think of the class clown you best remember, or that friend who’s always pulling pranks. They’re the modern-day zanni, keeping the audience entertained.

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Remember Ebenezer Scrooge? The miserly lead of Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol is the poster child for penny-pinching and holiday grumpiness.

He was redeemed at the end of his story, but that didn't stop English speakers from using his name as a label for someone often reluctant to share. Dickens likely drew the name from the archaic word "scrouge," meaning to squeeze or press. That’s fitting for a man who hoards every penny.

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Mary Shelley’s 1818 novel Frankenstein gave us not only a groundbreaking sci-fi tale but also a word that’s often misused.

The creature, assembled from body parts and brought to life by Victor Frankenstein, is frequently called "Frankenstein," though that’s technically the scientist’s name. The term now describes any jumbled creation or one that spirals out of control.

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Kind one moment, cruel the next. Robert Louis Stevenson’s 1886 novella Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde introduced us to a man with two personalities: the respectable Dr. Jekyll and his monstrous alter ego, Mr. Hyde.

The story explores the duality of human nature. Today we still use "Jekyll and Hyde" to describe anyone with a split personality.

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Miguel de Cervantes’ Don Quixote gave us the word "quixotic." It describes someone who’s idealistic to the point of impracticality.

The novel’s hero, Don Quixote, tilts at windmills, mistaking them for giants. His name comes from the Spanish quijote, meaning "thigh armor."

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Gargantua was a giant with an equally massive hunger. He was introduced in François Rabelais’ 16th-century series of satirical novels, Gargantua and Pantagruel.

The name, derived from the Spanish garganta (meaning "throat"), was a nod at the creature’s appetite. Over time, "gargantuan" came to describe anything enormous.

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Svengali was a sinister hypnotist. In George du Maurier’s 1894 novel Trilby, he used his knack to manipulate the titular character into becoming a singing sensation.

The author invented the word "svengali" for this character and the novel popularized the term. It has since come to describe anyone who controls another, usually with evil intentions.

SPACE ODDITIES

The 10 Strangest Objects Ever Found in Space

Credit: Greg Rakozy

The cosmos is incomprehensibly vast and full of mysteries. Despite our growing knowledge of its furthest reaches and curious phenomena, there is still much to discover. Space offers a treasure trove of strange and fascinating occurrences, from diamond planets to rogue stars and unexplained radio signals. Come aboard our spaceship as we explore 10 of the weirdest things humanity has ever encountered in deep space.

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Rogue planets are free-floating planetary-mass objects that don't orbit a star. These solitary wanderers drift through the galaxy, untethered and alone. Scientists believe they may have been ejected from their original star systems due to gravitational interactions or other dynamic processes.

Recent observations suggest that there might actually be a rogue planet lurking somewhere in the Oort Cloud, at the far reaches of our own solar system. If true, some argue it could be a Neptune-like planet from another solar system, captured a long time ago by the sun's gravity and that remained undetected until now.

Credit: Casey Horner

Hypervelocity stars are stars that travel through space at speeds exceeding a million miles per hour. These speed demons are thought to be ejected from the centers of galaxies by violent interactions with supermassive black holes. Their incredible velocities make them some of the fastest (and most fascinating) objects in the universe.

Some of these stars have been observed exceeding the escape velocity of their home galaxy. One of the fastest known stars in the Milky Way is the O-class sub-dwarf US 708, which is currently moving away from the galactic center at a staggering 1,200 km/s. For context, the escape velocity of our galaxy is around 537 km/s.

Credit: Guillermo Ferla

The Helix Nebula, often referred to as the "Eye of God," is a striking planetary nebula located about 650 light-years away in the constellation Aquarius. This cosmic eye appears as a glowing, multi-colored ring with a blue-green center, resembling a giant eye staring back at us from the depths of space.

Actually, the Helix Nebula was formed from a dying star that has been shedding its outer layers into space for thousands of years. The intense ultraviolet radiation from the remnant core causes these gaseous layers to glow brightly, giving the nebula its distinctive appearance. Though beautiful, it is a relatively ephemeral phenomenon —on a cosmic timescale, of course. The central star will eventually cool and shrink into a white dwarf, while the nebula itself will gradually disperse over time.

Credit: NASA Hubble Space Telescope

If you're unfamiliar with the Boomerang Nebula, its intriguing bowtie shape (it is also known as the Bow Tie Nebula) will undoubtedly catch your eye. However, it is not just its shape that makes it remarkable, as it happens to be one of the most unique places in the universe due to its extremely low temperature.

The Boomerang Nebula is the coldest place in the universe, with temperatures dipping to just one degree above absolute zero, making it even colder than the surrounding space. Contrary to what one might imagine about a rapidly expanding ball of gas and plasma expelled from a star, the seemingly fiery spectacle is frigidly cold. Surprisingly, this is due to the expansion itself, which causes the ejected material to cool down intensely.

Credit: Graham Holtshausen

Dragonfly 44 is one of the most mysterious places we've ever discovered in known space. While its estimated mass is comparable to that of the Milky Way, it contains very few stars, making it almost invisible. This intriguing cosmic puzzle was solved when scientists realized that almost 99% of the galaxy must be composed of the elusive dark matter.

Although dark matter is still not entirely understood, the concept was devised to explain why galaxies that don’t seem to have enough observable mass to stay together don't come apart during rotation. However, the existence of this type of galaxy has caused a stir in the scientific community, as most predictions didn't account for this phenomenon.

Credit: Jorge Salvador

Not exactly an object, but nonetheless one of the most fascinating phenomena encountered while probing the depths of space with radio telescopes. The Wow! Signal, detected in 1977 by the Big Ear radio telescope, is a strong, narrowband radio signal.

Lasting just 72 seconds, its strange regularity and the fact that it has no known terrestrial or cosmic source make it one of the most intriguing potential signs of extraterrestrial intelligence ever recorded. The name originates from the astronomer who first discovered it, who famously scribbled "Wow!" next to the printout of the signal's intensity.

Credit: Samuel PASTEUR-FOSSE

Located in the vicinity of the constellation Cygnus, Tabby's Star is one of the most intriguing space phenomena out there. This distant star displays irregular and dramatic fluctuations in brightness that defy easy explanation based on its observable surroundings and orbit.

These anomalies have led some scientists to speculate about the presence of an alien megastructure—a hypothetical concept known as a Dyson sphere—encompassing a significant portion of the star and causing its intermittent dimming. Such a structure could theoretically harness the star's energy almost completely. However, most researchers consider a more mundane explanation (like planetary debris or dust clouds) to be far more probable.

Credit: NASA Hubble Space Telescope

The first interstellar object ever spotted passing through our solar system, Oumuamua was discovered in 2017 by the Pan-STARRS telescope at the Haleakalā Observatory in Hawaii (hence its name, which means "scout" in Hawaiian).

Its elongated shape and unusual trajectory sparked a heated debate about its origin, with some speculating it could be an alien probe. Complicating matters further, the object exhibited non-gravitational acceleration, implying it was accelerating on its own. While this could be attributed to solar pressure or outgassing, no conclusive evidence has been gathered to fully explain its peculiar behavior. Nevertheless, Oumuamua remains our most enigmatic visitor from another star system, alien or not.

Credit: NASA Hubble Space Telescope

Zombie stars, known scientifically as "recurrent novae," are white dwarfs that undergo repeated supernova-like explosions. These massive outbursts fail to completely destroy the star's core, allowing it to reignite and restart the explosive cycle, challenging our understanding of stellar evolution.

Typically found in binary star systems, zombie stars can draw hydrogen from a companion star, effectively resurrecting themselves. Over time, these undead stars accumulate enough material to trigger a nova explosion once again.

Credit: Daniele Levis Pelusi

Ever dreamed of a planet made almost entirely of diamonds? Well, you might be in luck. Diamond planets are theoretical exoplanets primarily composed of carbon, with significant portions of their mass being in the form of diamond.

These sparkling worlds are thought to form around carbon-rich stars. One potential candidate is 55 Cancri e, a super-Earth in a nearby star system. However, even the most die-hard of diamond fans might find this planet too extreme, as it orbits extremely close to its star, with surface temperatures reaching a scorching 3,900 degrees Fahrenheit.