Discovered Today! 03/29/2009

• Cakeround: Things You Never Knew had Names

  Things You Never Knew had Names
  
  1. AGLET - The plain or ornamental covering on the end of a shoelace.
  2. ARMSAYE - The armhole in clothing.
  3. CHANKING - Spat-out food, such as rinds or pits.
  4. COLUMELLA NASI - The bottom part of the nose between the nostrils.
  5. DRAGÉES - Small beadlike pieces of candy, usually silver-coloured, used for decorating cookies, cakes and sundaes.
  6. FEAT - A dangling curl of hair.
  7. FERRULE - The metal band on a pencil that holds the eraser in place.
  8. HARP - The small metal hoop that supports a lampshade.
  9. HEMIDEMISEMIQUAVER - A 64th note. (A 32nd is a demisemiquaver, and a 16th note is a semiquaver.)
  10. JARNS,
  11. NITTLES,
  12. GRAWLIX,
  13. and QUIMP - Various squiggles used to denote cussing in comic books.
  14. KEEPER - The loop on a belt that keeps the end in place after it has passed through the buckle.
  15. KICK or PUNT - The indentation at the bottom of some wine bottles. It gives added strength to the bottle but lessens its holding capacity.
  16. LIRIPIPE - The long tail on a graduate's academic hood.
  17. MINIMUS - The little finger or toe.
  18. NEF - An ornamental stand in the shape of a ship.
  19. OBDORMITION - The numbness caused by pressure on a nerve; when a limb is 'asleep'.
  20. 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.
  21. OPHRYON - The space between the eyebrows on a line with the top of the eye sockets.
  22. PEEN - The end of a hammer head opposite the striking face.
  23. PHOSPHENES - The lights you see when you close your eyes hard. Technically the luminous impressions are due to the excitation of the retina caused by pressure on the eyeball.
  24. PURLICUE - The space between the thumb and extended forefinger.
  25. RASCETA - Creases on the inside of the wrist.
  26. ROWEL - The revolving star on the back of a cowboy's spurs.
  27. SADDLE - The rounded part on the top of a mat

  tags: language

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