
Sign up to save your podcasts
Or


This episode gets into the origins of sleep-related terminology. Starting with how synonyms for sleep such as rest, nap, slumber and ZZZs entered the English language, we explain a theory as to why it's "forty winks" instead of twenty, thirty or fifty. Learn why the Old English word for snore is connected to rooting for someone to win, and why Australians might refer to a duvet as a doona.
By Leon Bailey-Green4.5
1414 ratings
This episode gets into the origins of sleep-related terminology. Starting with how synonyms for sleep such as rest, nap, slumber and ZZZs entered the English language, we explain a theory as to why it's "forty winks" instead of twenty, thirty or fifty. Learn why the Old English word for snore is connected to rooting for someone to win, and why Australians might refer to a duvet as a doona.

78,411 Listeners

38,891 Listeners

25,841 Listeners

125 Listeners

228 Listeners

112,593 Listeners

56,575 Listeners

24,390 Listeners

1,405 Listeners

53 Listeners

2,133 Listeners

14,802 Listeners

2,817 Listeners

2,124 Listeners

871 Listeners