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Today I Learned (TIL)

Added 8 years ago / Updated 4 years ago
Til

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Part of a series on Internet Slang. [View Related Entries]

REI tilthat TIL that because of a mistranslation Jimmy Carter told the Polish people in 1977 that he desired them carnally and that he had left the United States to never return. via reddit.com postmarxed Imagine being a Polish citizen and you hear the American president say he's here to f k and he's not leaving Source: tilthat 12,610 notes
Posted by u/cpclemens 5 days ago TIL that ZZ Top is the longest-running group with an unchanged line-up in the entire history of popular music
Posted by u/98finishing 25 days ago 2 3 TIL that the depictions of the mafia in The Sopranos were so accurate, that real members thought that they were being spied on. These conversations were overheard, when the FBI were indeed spying on them.
Posted by u/wileysaur 23 days ago TIL that, in America, before TV was on 24 hours, there was a nightly sign off where the Star Spangled Banner was played and an image of the American flag was shown before the TV cut to static.
r/todayilearned Posted by u/RuseOwl • 1h + JOIN TIL Star Wars composer John William's son is the lead singer for the rock group Toto Learning en.wikipedia.org + ↑ Vote Share Award 14 SINGLE COMMENT THREAD VIEW ALL JustaCrackintheWall • 1h I bless the Rains down in Taaaaaattoine 1 15 + Reply
PULL laughhard TIL the word for "Pull" in Thai looks like an old school doctor, ready for some fisticuffs. Reblogged 12 hours ago from floating-head (originally from laughhard) 513 notes
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About • Origin • Spread • Examples • Search Interest • External References • Recent Images • Recent Videos

About

Today I Learned, often shortened as TIL, is an online expression typically used in the title of a post or discussion thread when introducing an interesting fact or trivia that had been previously unknown to the poster, in a similar vein to the phrase "did you know?"

Origin

While the exact origin of "TIL" as the three-letter acronym for "today I learned…" remains unclear, the phrase itself most likely began seeping into everyday online vernacular through its usage on social news aggregation sites Reddit and Digg sometime in April 2007, according to Google Trends. On December 28th, 2008, Redditor nix0n created /r/TIL[1], a subreddit where community members are encouraged to spontaneously share "interesting and specific facts" that they had just found out about, in contrast to general knowledge that they had intently looked up.

Spread

On August 20th, 2009, Urban Dictionary user zBriGuy submitted the earliest known acronymic definition for "TIL" (shown below).[2]

TIL T.I.L. (Today I Learned) Often used as a space saver on websites such as Reddit or DIGG when writing the titles of links to interesting things the submitter has learned that day. TIL that a meter is the distance light travels in 299,792,458ths of a second. by zBriGuy August 20,2009 It 25581 182

In February 2010, the official Twitter feed[8] for the /r/TIL subreddit was set up, followed by the launch of the Tumblr blog[4] in June 2012 and the official Facebook page[7] in August that same year. In mid-May 2011, the moderators of /r/TIL announced that the acronym "TIL" would be phased out in favor of the phrase "todayilearned" for the name of the subreddit.[10]

Examples

As of January 2016, the /r/todayilearned subreddit commands nearly 10 million subscribers and there are a total of seven /r/todayilearned posts that have accrued more than 10,000 upvotes.

TIL that a newspaper posted a poll asking readers if watching Blackfish - a documentary critical of SeaWorld for keeping orcas captive 13289 changed their opinions of SeaWorld. The results were "No." It was later revealed that 55% of the votes came from a single IP- address . . . hosted by SeaWorld (en.wikipedia.org)
TIL at a Marine Mammal Studies Institute, dolphins were trained to turn in trash that fell into the pools in exchange for fish. One dolphin was smart enough to hide pieces of paper under a rock, tearing off smaller pieces from the paper in order to get more fish out of it. (theguardian.com) 13296
TIL there was a song written in the 1630s that was performed only in the Sistine Chapel. The Vatican kept the composition of the piece secret for 150 years until the 14-year-old Mozart listened to the piece two times, transcribed it 10036 ory, and produced the fin unauthorized copy of the song. (en.wikipedia.org)

TIL millionaire Michael O'Leary, CEO of airline 10927 Ryanair, has his own taxicab company with just one cab so he can legally use the bus lanes and avoid traffic jams (en.wikipedia.org)
TIL most Japanese schools do not employ janitors or custodians. The Japanese education system believes that requiring students to clean the school themselves teaches respect, responsibility, and emphasizes equality (ehow.com) 15059
TIL of a Malawian teenager who taught himself how to build a windmill out of junk and bring power to his village. He then went on to build a second, larger windmill to power irrigation pumps. He did this all from books he read in the library. (news.bbc.co.uk) 11342

Search Interest

External References

[1] Reddit – /r/TodayILearned

[2] Urban Dictionary – TIL

[3] TIL via Wayback Machine – Today I Learned Online

[4] Tumblr – Official /r/TIL Blog

[5] Tumblr – Tagged Results for 'Today I Learned'

[6] Tumblr – Today I Learned

[7] Facebook – Reddit Today I Learned

[8] Twitter – @TodayILearned

[9] Wiktionary – TIL

[10] Reddit – r/TIL is no more. Please use r/TodayILearned instead *

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Today I Learned (TIL)

Today I Learned (TIL)

Part of a series on Internet Slang. [View Related Entries]

Updated Dec 29, 2019 at 06:55AM EST by Y F.

Added Jan 04, 2016 at 05:59PM EST by Brad.

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This submission is currently being researched & evaluated!

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About

Today I Learned, often shortened as TIL, is an online expression typically used in the title of a post or discussion thread when introducing an interesting fact or trivia that had been previously unknown to the poster, in a similar vein to the phrase "did you know?"

Origin

While the exact origin of "TIL" as the three-letter acronym for "today I learned…" remains unclear, the phrase itself most likely began seeping into everyday online vernacular through its usage on social news aggregation sites Reddit and Digg sometime in April 2007, according to Google Trends. On December 28th, 2008, Redditor nix0n created /r/TIL[1], a subreddit where community members are encouraged to spontaneously share "interesting and specific facts" that they had just found out about, in contrast to general knowledge that they had intently looked up.

Spread

On August 20th, 2009, Urban Dictionary user zBriGuy submitted the earliest known acronymic definition for "TIL" (shown below).[2]


TIL T.I.L. (Today I Learned) Often used as a space saver on websites such as Reddit or DIGG when writing the titles of links to interesting things the submitter has learned that day. TIL that a meter is the distance light travels in 299,792,458ths of a second. by zBriGuy August 20,2009 It 25581 182

In February 2010, the official Twitter feed[8] for the /r/TIL subreddit was set up, followed by the launch of the Tumblr blog[4] in June 2012 and the official Facebook page[7] in August that same year. In mid-May 2011, the moderators of /r/TIL announced that the acronym "TIL" would be phased out in favor of the phrase "todayilearned" for the name of the subreddit.[10]

Examples

As of January 2016, the /r/todayilearned subreddit commands nearly 10 million subscribers and there are a total of seven /r/todayilearned posts that have accrued more than 10,000 upvotes.


TIL that a newspaper posted a poll asking readers if watching Blackfish - a documentary critical of SeaWorld for keeping orcas captive 13289 changed their opinions of SeaWorld. The results were "No." It was later revealed that 55% of the votes came from a single IP- address . . . hosted by SeaWorld (en.wikipedia.org) TIL at a Marine Mammal Studies Institute, dolphins were trained to turn in trash that fell into the pools in exchange for fish. One dolphin was smart enough to hide pieces of paper under a rock, tearing off smaller pieces from the paper in order to get more fish out of it. (theguardian.com) 13296 TIL there was a song written in the 1630s that was performed only in the Sistine Chapel. The Vatican kept the composition of the piece secret for 150 years until the 14-year-old Mozart listened to the piece two times, transcribed it 10036 ory, and produced the fin unauthorized copy of the song. (en.wikipedia.org)
TIL millionaire Michael O'Leary, CEO of airline 10927 Ryanair, has his own taxicab company with just one cab so he can legally use the bus lanes and avoid traffic jams (en.wikipedia.org) TIL most Japanese schools do not employ janitors or custodians. The Japanese education system believes that requiring students to clean the school themselves teaches respect, responsibility, and emphasizes equality (ehow.com) 15059 TIL of a Malawian teenager who taught himself how to build a windmill out of junk and bring power to his village. He then went on to build a second, larger windmill to power irrigation pumps. He did this all from books he read in the library. (news.bbc.co.uk) 11342

Search Interest

External References

[1] Reddit – /r/TodayILearned

[2] Urban Dictionary – TIL

[3] TIL via Wayback Machine – Today I Learned Online

[4] Tumblr – Official /r/TIL Blog

[5] Tumblr – Tagged Results for 'Today I Learned'

[6] Tumblr – Today I Learned

[7] Facebook – Reddit Today I Learned

[8] Twitter – @TodayILearned

[9] Wiktionary – TIL

[10] Reddit – r/TIL is no more. Please use r/TodayILearned instead *

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