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There's a name for THAT?!

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March 05, 2009, 08:49
wordcrafter
There's a name for THAT?!
This week we'll smile at some names for ordinary items that you probably didn't realize even had a name.

To honor our last theme, Blend Words, we'll begin with a name that fits that theme too. You'll find a sample of this named item in the title for the current theme.

interrobang – the punctuation mark ‽ (if your browser won't show it, imagine superimposing a ? over a !), used to end a simultaneous question and exclamation, usually of surprised, emphatic and often rhetorical disbelief

[blend of interrogation point + bang (printers' slang for the exclamation point). The name was invented in 1962 when Martin Speckter, head of a New York advertising agency, perceived a need for such a mark. He solicited names from magazine-readers, and from their offerings selected interrobang.]

Some like this symbol and some hate it (see quotes), but all agree that it has not caught on, and is rarely used. Why not? I'd suggest it's because the same purpose is already served by ?! (the ? and ! in succession, not superimposed), and that this ?!-combination is a single symbol, the name of which is also interrobang.
March 05, 2009, 11:19
jerry thomas
This brings back echoes of Mother's voice, saying (asking) "You call That clean?!"
March 06, 2009, 10:24
wordcrafter
What do you call those drive-up mailboxes, made so that you can deposit a letter without leaving your car?

snorkel box – a mailbox, for curbside placement, with a projecting slot that can be reached from within an automobile
March 06, 2009, 10:51
Robert Arvanitis
A footnote or two:

Snorkel and snore share an etymology.

Nostril shares its origin with thrill and drill, as in a hole drilled in the nose...


RJA
March 06, 2009, 10:54
Robert Arvanitis
Oh, and the furry snout of the Schnauzer.


RJA
March 06, 2009, 12:52
goofy
quote:
Originally posted by Robert Arvanitis:
Nostril shares its origin with thrill and drill, as in a hole drilled in the nose...


thrill, yes. drill, maybe not.
March 06, 2009, 15:36
<Proofreader>
quote:
furry snout of the Schnauzer

What do you do if the hair is falling off your Schnauzer? Stop riding the bicycle so much.
March 07, 2009, 14:28
wordcrafter
Question: What are those little bumps in between the lanes on the freeway?

Answer: Botts' dots, named for Dr. Elbert Dysart Botts (1893-1962), engineer with Caltrans (California Department of Transportation), who came up with the idea and was active in developing it.

Painted lane-lines tend to become invisible during rain, but Botts' dots (sometimes mistakenly called "Bott dots" or Bott's dots", with a shifting apostrophe) signal the driver with a bump and rumble. Some sources define the term to specify reflective dots, or non-reflective ones, or ceramic tile ones, but in my view that is mis-definition.
March 07, 2009, 14:43
Robert Arvanitis
Not to be confused with Bernie Bot's dots (jelly beans of course)...
http://www.mugglenet.com/info/other/beans.shtml


RJA
March 08, 2009, 10:30
wordcrafter
kerf – the groove made when one cuts with a saw (or with similar ax- or laser-cutting, etc.)
Kerf also means the width of material lost to the cutting blade. Sawmills cut down on the loss (and the sawdust), and maximize profits, by using narrow-kerf blades to cut their timber.

(pun intended!)
March 08, 2009, 10:44
Robert Arvanitis
For me, one of the great pleasures of words is finding long-lost relatives, stems that have wandered afar and then returned, much transformed by their journeys.

See precocious/apricot, and kit/guitar:
https://wordcraft.infopop.cc/ev...511026593#3511026593

"Kerf" shares its origin, not surprisingly, with a number of similarly cutting words, including "carve," "crab," and "graphic." See for example: http://www.myetymology.com/pro...european/gerbh-.html


RJA
March 09, 2009, 08:39
wordcrafter
We've all seen this kind of box. What do you call it?

slipcase – a protective box with an open end, used to store a book or bookset while allowing it to be shelved with its spine showing
[also, a like slide-in cover for a phonograph record, a VCR tape, an identity tag, etc.][Lederer claims that this sort of box is a called a forel, but good luck finding that word so used nowadays.]
March 10, 2009, 07:50
wordcrafter
Lists of "There's a name for that?" words – I'm not the first to compile one – often include "aglet". (One list-reader commented, "Somehow I knew aglet would be on that list.") We've presented "aglet" before: it is the plastic sheath, on the end of a shoelace, to facilitate its passing through eyelet holes.

But suppose you lose your aglet and your shoelace-end unravels, so that you have to lick it to a point to fumble it through the eyelet holes (the grommets). You get "up close and personal" with that ragged end. With such a close personal relationship, don't you think you should be introduced to it by name?

feazings – the frayed or raveled end of a rope (or, presumably, of a thread, shoelace, etc.)

I've tried this week to present words that you could conceivably use. Each names a familiar thing that you might have occasion to refer to, and even if the word is obscure, you could use it and reasonably expect that your hearers would understand from context. Today's word feazings is the only one this week which (as far as I can tell) is entirely obsolete, and is never used. But wouldn't it be a useful word, naming something we all run into and could use a name for?
March 10, 2009, 08:10
Robert Arvanitis
Is "to ravel" the same as "to unravel?"

Shades of (in)flammable.


RJA
March 10, 2009, 09:01
<Proofreader>
MW 1. To make complicated
Mw 3. To make clear
March 10, 2009, 10:14
jerry thomas
quote:
Is "to ravel" the same as "to unravel?"


Whatever ye sew, that will ye also rip.
March 11, 2009, 06:01
wordcrafter
Quote: Whatever ye sew, that will ye also rip.

Speaking of sewing, see next. Wink
March 11, 2009, 06:01
wordcrafter
armseye – the armhole opening, in clothing

What a pretty image: the "eye" for the arm. Sometimes rendered as arms eye – two words – or armsaye.
The term seems to be used only in the literature of sewing, but it would be useful every time you struggle with donning your coat. "Where is that @#$!@ armseye?!"

(ending the theme with an [interro]bang)
March 11, 2009, 07:58
arnie
quote:
(ending the theme with an [interro]bang)

But not, evidently, with a full stop (or period).


Build a man a fire and he's warm for a day. Set a man on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.