The Etymologicon: A Circular Stroll through the Hidden Connections of the English Language

by Mark Forsyth

Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo. Confused? The grammar is easier if you compare it to this version: Buffalo bison [whom] Buffalo bison bully [then] bully Buffalo bison. It’s the longest grammatically correct sentence in the English language that uses only one word.

longest sentence using one word

You may have heard that love in tennis is a corruption of the French l’oeuf, meaning egg, because an egg looks a bit like a zero. This is a myth.28 Love is nothing because those who do something for the love of it do it for nothing. For example, people either marry for money or connections, or for love. Love therefore became a synonym for nothing, because if you do something purely for love, you get nothing.