John's Blog: The More You Know...

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Friday, February 16, 2007

The More You Know...

Not that you've lost sleep over not knowing, but some trivial knowledge to round out the week. Go ahead, I dare you to work some of the 33 Names of Things You Never Knew had Names into a conversation this weekend.

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.

OPHRYON - The space between the eyebrows on a line with the top of the eye sockets.

PEEN - The end of a hammer head opposite the striking face.

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.

PURLICUE - The space between the thumb and extended forefinger.

RASCETA - Creases on the inside of the wrist.

ROWEL - The revolving star on the back of a cowboy's spurs.