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The US state of Georgia is named after King George II who granted a colonial charter to James Oglethorpe and a group of other trustees in 1732. Oglethorpe named the colony after his patron.

The etymology of the name of the Eurasian country is disputed. The most likely explanation is that the name is a transliteration of the Russian for the Gurz or Gurdzh people who occupied the land in ancient times. Others have linked the country to Saint George, the 3rd century soldier in Emperor Diocletian’s army who was martyred for his Christian faith and who, according to legend, fought and vanquished a dragon.

(Sources: Illustrated Dictionary of Place Names; Webster’s Third New International Dictionary; Place Names of the World)

Columbia is a poetic name for the United States or even more broadly the Americas. It is, of course, a feminized version of the name Columbus. Use of a feminized form of Columbus’s name to refer to the new world began in England As early as the mid-17th century. Nicolas Fuller, an English clergyman, wrote in his 1660 Miscellanea Sacra:

[...] is every where called America: but according to Truth, and Desert; men should rather call it Columbina, from the magnani mous Heroe Christopher Columbus

Despite the claims of rabid science fiction fans, the phrase there ain’t no such thing as a free lunch began its life as a joke that was commonly told by economists in the first half of the 20th century.

The joke goes that one day a king assembled his advisors and asked them to summarize the essence of economics wisdom. One by one, the advisors delivered lengthy treatises on the subject. Angry that they weren’t doing what he had asked, the king had them executed. When it came to his turn one wise advisor, realizing what was happening, summed up all of economics wisdom in there ain’t no such thing as a free lunch, pleasing the king and sparing his life.

How did field day come to mean a time of great success and opportunity? Field would seem to be an odd choice at first blush, but as with many such terms, an examination of its semantic development makes all clear.

Field day originally referred to a day of military exercises. From A Scheme for Equipping and Maintaining Sixteen Men of War, from 1747:

These periodical Intervals of eating and drinking...are to the Citizens as it were Field Days, for improving...their Valour.

By the early 19th century, the term had generalized to mean a day of big events. From an 1827 letter by Thomas Creevey, an English politician:

Saturday was a considerable field day in Arlington Street,...and a very merry jolly dinner and evening we had.

Finally, by the mid-20th century the big events had become great successes. From a letter by Aldous Huxley on 8 December 1969, in which he puns on the “field” in the phrase:

Industrial agriculture is having a field day in the million acres of barren plain now irrigated.

(Source: Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd Edition)