JoeM Master Poster
Joined: 09 Jul 2004 Posts: 122 Location: Jackson Hole, Wyoming USA
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Posted: Wed Mar 16, 2005 10:01 pm Post subject: What things are called. |
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The practice of eating insects is called entomophagy
Mid-men, the male versions of mid-wives, are called accouchers.
The working section of a piano is called the action.
The plastic things on the end of shoelaces are called aglets.
The distance that a place holder falls from a glass when it is lifted (you know, place holders sometimes get stuck to the bottom of a cold glass when you lift the glass) is called a bevemeter.
The study of creatures such as Bigfoot, the chupacabra, and the Loch Ness monster is called cryptozoology. Zoologist Bernard Heuvelmans coined the term to describe his investigations of animals unknown to science.
The apparatus used in alcohol distilleries for freeing the spirit from water is called the dephlegmator.
One that speaks two languages - is bilingual - can be said to be diglot.
Ducks are never male. The males of the species are called drakes.
Shoemakers are commonly called cobblers but correctly speaking a cobbler is a shoe repairmen. A shoemaker is a cordwainer.
The device at the intersection of two railroad tracks to permit the wheels and flanges on one track to cross or branch for the other is called a frog.
A specific length of thread or yarn according to the type of fiber is called a hank. For linen, a hank is 274 metres (300 yards); for cotton, it is 768 metres (840 yards).
The white part of your fingernail is called the lunula.
The thin line of cloud that forms behind an aircraft at high altitudes is called a contrail.
A depth of 2 fathoms (3,6 metres) is called a Mark Twain. Originally a fathom was the space reached by with two arms outstretched.
In the early days of film making, people who worked on the sets were called movies. The films were called potion pictures.
The tendency of the leaves or petals of certain plants to assume a different position at night is called nyctitropism.
The back of the human hand is the opisthenar.
Someone who uses as few words as possible when speaking is called pauciloquent.
The pin that holds a hinge together is called a pintle.
The gland responsible for producing the hormone that regulates growth is called the pituitary gland. It is the size of a pea.
In early France the distance a man could walk while smoking one pipeful of tobacco was called a pipee.
The central shaft of a bird's feather which bears the vane or web of the feather is called a rachis.
The hairless area of roughened skin at the tip of a bear's snout is called the rhinarium.
Someone who habitually picks their nose is called a rhinotillexomaniac (rhino=nose, tillexis=habit of picking at something, mania=obsession with something). See Useless Information
A building in which silence is enforced, like a library or school room, is referred to as a silentium.
The ear-splitting sound produced by the high notes of a bagpipe is called a skirl.
The fleshy projection above the bill on a turkey is called a snood.
People who chase after rare birds are called twitchers.
4 gills of ale and beer is 1 pint, 2 pints = 1 quart, 4 quarts = 1 gallon, 9 gallons = 1 firkin, 2 firkins = 1 kilderkin, 3 kilderkins = 1 hogshead, 2 hogsheads = 1 butt. |
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