All in a name

33 Names of Things You Never Knew had Names

1. ABOYNE (vb.) To beat an expert at a game of skill by playing so appallingly that none of his clever tactics or strategies are of any use to him.
2. AGLET – The plain or ornamental covering on the end of a shoelace.
3. AALST (n.) One who changes his name to be further to the front
4. ARMSAYE – The armhole in clothing.
5. CHANKING – Spat-out food, such as rinds or pits.
6. CLIXBY (adj.) Politely rude. Briskly vague. Firmly uninformative.
7. COLUMELLA NASI – The bottom part of the nose between the nostrils.
8. DRAGÉES – Small beadlike pieces of candy, usually silver-coloured, used for decorating cookies, cakes and sundaes.
9. FAIRYMOUNT (vb. n.) Polite word for buggery.
10. FEAT – A dangling curl of hair.
11. FERRULE – The metal band on a pencil that holds the eraser in place.
12. HARP – The small metal hoop that supports a lampshade.
13. HEMIDEMISEMIQUAVER – A 64th note. (A 32nd is a demisemiquaver, and a 16th note is a semiquaver.)
14. LAXOBIGGING (ptcpl.vb.) Struggling to extrude an extremely large turd.
15. JARNS,
16. NITTLES,
17. GRAWLIX,
18. and QUIMP – Various squiggles used to denote cussing in comic books.
19. KEEPER – The loop on a belt that keeps the end in place after it has passed through the buckle.
20. KICK or PUNT – The indentation at the bottom of some wine bottles. It gives added strength to the bottle but lessens its holding capacity.
21. LIRIPIPE – The long tail on a graduate’s academic hood.
22. MINIMUS – The little finger or toe.
23. NEF – An ornamental stand in the shape of a ship.
24. OBDORMITION – The numbness caused by pressure on a nerve; when a limb is `asleep’.
25. 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.
26. OPHRYON – The space between the eyebrows on a line with the top of the eye sockets.
27. PEEN – The end of a hammer head opposite the striking face.
28. 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.
29. PURLICUE – The space between the thumb and extended forefinger.
30. RASCETA – Creases on the inside of the wrist.
31. ROWEL – The revolving star on the back of a cowboy’s spurs.
32. SADDLE – The rounded part on the top of a matchbook.
33. SCROOP – The rustle of silk.
34. SHOEBURYNESS (abs.n.) The vague uncomfortable feeling you get when sitting on a seat which is still warm from somebody else’s bottom
35. SNORKEL BOX – A mailbox with a protruding receiver to allow people to deposit mail without leaving their cars.
36. SPRAINTS – Otter dung.
37. TANG – The projecting prong on a tool or instrument.
38. TAINT – The space between the testicles or vagina and the anus.
39. WAMBLE – Stomach rumbling.
40. WOKING (vb.) To enter the kitchen with the precise determination to perform something only to forget what it is just before you do i
41. ZARF – A holder for a handleless coffee cup.

(From Canogate’s Book of Lists )

~ by Carla Gade on January 2, 2007.