What’s in a word – Jinx!
Recommended for Preparatory Grades
In popular belief and folklore, a Jinx (sometimes spelt as jynx) is a curse.
Fun facts about Jinx!
- It also means bad luck or the quality of attracting ill fortune or unfavourable circumstances.
- Jinx comes from an Old English name for a woodpecker-like bird called the wryneck. The earlier spelling was ‘jynx’ which comes from the Latin word iynx.
Cool facts about Wrynecks!
- Wrynecks have very big heads, and their tongues are very long.
- People sometimes call them “snake-birds” because they can turn their heads almost all the way around.
- When they are scared, they twist their heads like a snake and hiss, which makes people run away from them.
- This strange behaviour led to them being used in witchcraft, which is where the phrase “putting a curse on someone” comes from.
- You can find wrynecks everywhere, from England to Japan and everywhere in between.
- One type of this animal only lives in Africa.
- A medical condition called Torticollis is also called “wryneck.” Wryneck happens when the muscles in the neck twist more than they should, which makes the head tilt forward.
See the bird below.
Video credit: Nat Geo WILD/Youtube
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