December 10, 2006

Names of things...



...you never knew had names:

AGLET
The plain or ornamental covering on the end of a shoelace.

ARMSAYE
The armhole in clothing.

CHANKING
Spat-out food, such as rinds or pits.

COLUMELLA NASI
The bottom part of the nose between the nostrils.

DRAGÉES
Small beadlike pieces of candy, usually silver-coloured, used for decorating cookies, cakes and sundaes.

FEAT
A dangling curl of hair.

FERRULE
The metal band on a pencil that holds the eraser in place.

HARP
The small metal hoop that supports a lampshade.

HEMIDEMISEMIQUAVER
A 64th note. (A 32nd is a demisemiquaver, and a 16th note is a semiquaver.)

JARNS, NITTLES, GRAWLIX and QUIMP
Various squiggles used to denote cussing in comic books.

KEEPER
The loop on a belt that keeps the end in place after it has passed through the buckle.

KICK or PUNT
The indentation at the bottom of some wine bottles. It gives added strength to the bottle but lessens its holding capacity.

LIRIPIPE
The long tail on a graduate's academic hood.

MINIMUS
The little finger or toe.

NEF
An ornamental stand in the shape of a ship.

OBDORMITION
The numbness caused by pressure on a nerve; when a limb is `asleep'.

OCTOTHORPE
The symbol `#' on a telephone handset. Bell Labs' engineer Don Macpherson created the word in the 1960s by combining octo-, as in eight, with the name of one of his favourite athletes, 1912 Olympic decathlon champion Jim Thorpe.

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