Next time you nuzzle up to your sweetie to steal a holiday kiss under the mistletoe, you may want to know what "mistletoe" means. Well, LiveScience.com claims that the ancients believed mistletoe sprang spontaneously from bird droppings. In fact, in old Anglo-Saxon talk, mistle meant dung, and tan meant twig. So mistletoe literally means "dung on a twig."

Later, it was found that birds actually ate the mistletoe seeds which remained undigested and germinated in the droppings left on tree branches. The plant then rooted itself to the bark of its arboreal host and lived off nutrients sucked from the tree.

The tradition of kissing under the mistletoe may have sprung from the Roman festival of Saturnalia, a festival marking the winter solstice. Apparently, in Scandinavia, mistletoe was considered a plant of peace, under which enemies could declare a truce or warring spouses kiss and make up.