A flair

In the 14th century, if someone told you that you had flair (or flayre as it was then commonly spelled), you might very well take offense. This is because in Middle English flayre meant "an odor." The word is derived from the Old French verb flairier ("to give off an odor"), which came, in turn, from Late Latin flagrare, itself an alteration of fragrare. (The English words fragrant and fragrance also derive from fragrare.) The "odor" sense of flair fell out of use, but in the 19th century, English speakers once again borrowed flair from the French—this time (influenced by the Modern French use of the word for the sense of smell) to indicate a discriminating sense or instinctive discernment.

A True Story

A 2nd-century Roman novel A True Story was written by Lucian of Samosata. It is regarded as one of the first ever works of science fiction ever written and it features explorers flying to the moon, the first contact with aliens, an interstellar war and the discovery of a new continent.

Churlish

Churlish has come to mean "vulgar," "surly," and "intractable"—if you know your English history. In Anglo-Saxon England, a churl, or ceorl, was a freeman of the lowest rank who owned and cultivated a small farm. He had certain rights and had upward mobility to rise to the rank of thane. After the Norman Conquest, however, many churls became serfs, a change in status that meant losing not just social mobility but geographical mobility as well. The lowest rungs of a social system often serve as inspiration for a language's pejoratives, and churl eventually came to be used as a term for a rude, ill-bred person.

The Hardy Boys

Franklin Dixon, the author of over 200 Hardy Boys books which have sold over 70 million copies worldwide is not a real person but a collective pseudonym for dozens of authors who have written for the series. Canadian author Leslie McFarlane wrote 19 of the first 25 books.