THE NAMES OF THINGS YOU DIDN’T KNOW HAD NAMES
Adelaster: meaning ‘unknown star’ in Greek, this is the name given to newly discovered plants awaiting classification by botanists
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Aglet: the plastic covering on the end of a shoelace
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Aphthongs: silent letters (in words such as the ‘k’ in ‘know’ and the ‘p’ in ‘psychology’)
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Armsate: the hole in a shirt or a sweater through which you put your hand and arm
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Bonnet: the cap on a fire hydrant
Brannock device: the metal instrument used in shoe shops to measure feet
Brassard: a band worn around the arm
Buccula: a person’s double chin
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Columella: the bottom part of the nose that separates the nostrils
Contrail: the thin line of cloud that forms behind an aircraft at high altitudes
Diastema: a gap between the front teeth
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Drupelets: the bumps on raspberries
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Epithalamium: a poem written to celebrate a wedding
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Eyes: the holes in Swiss cheese
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Ferrule: the metal band on the top of a pencil that holds the eraser in place
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F-hole: the S-shaped opening in a violin
Fillip: the technical term for snapping your fingers
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Gambrinous: the state of being full of beer
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Griffonage: illegible handwriting
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Gruntle: a pig’s snout
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Harp: the metal hoop a lampshade sits on
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IDEO locator: the ‘you are here’ arrow on a map
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Jiffy: 1/100th of a second
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Keeper: the loop on a belt that holds the end in place after it has passed through the buckle
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Lalochezia: the use of swearing to relieve stress or pain
Lemniscate: the infinity symbol
Lunt: a puff of smoke, such as that produced when someone smokes a pipe
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Lunula: the white tip of the finger and toenail (because the end of the nail is rounded like the moon)
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Minimus: the little finger or toe
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Mucophagy: the consumption of the nasal mucus obtained from nose-picking
Nemophilia: the love of spending time in forests.
Nittles: the punctuation marks designed to denote swear words in comics
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Obdormition: when an arm or a leg goes to ‘sleep’ as a result of numbness caused by pressure on a nerve
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Octothorpe: the ‘pound’ key (#)
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Ophyron: the space between your eyebrows
Pandiculation: the act of stretching and yawning
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Peen: on a hammer, the end opposite the striking face
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Pips: the little bumps on the surface of a table tennis bat
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Porcelator: the little hole in the sink that lets water drain out instead of flowing over the side
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Purlicue: the space between the extended thumb and index finger
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Rasceta: the creases on the inside of your wrist
Rowel: the revolving star on the back of a cowboy’s spurs
Saddle: the rounded part on the top of a book of matches
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Sillage: the faint trace of perfume left in the wake of a passing person
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Snarge: the remains of birds hit by airplanes in flight
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Tittle: the dot above the letter ‘i’
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Toque: a chef ’s tall hat
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Tragus: the little lump of flesh just in front of the ear canal
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Truck: the ball on top of a flagpole
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Ullage: the word for empty space between the bottle top and the liquid
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Vamp: the upper front part of a shoe
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Vibrissae: a cat’s whiskers
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Walla: a sound engineer’s term for room noise
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Zarf: a holder for a cup or a mug without handles
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(There is no single word for the back of the knee.)