Everything Has A Name In English
29 Oct 2018
Petrichor
Petrichor is the scent produced when rain drops fall onto dry soil. Many people love the smell of rain so much because of an organic compound called geosmin that is released into the air.
Ferrule
The Ferrule is the metal part of the pencil that holds the eraser in place. You’ve most likely been using pencils your entire life and have never noticed this metal piece other than to chew on it.
Morton's Toe
Also known as “Greek Foot,” this is when your second toe is larger than your big toe. This may sound strange, but it’s actually a very common trait, occurring in 10%-20% of the population.
Zarf
The zarf is the useful piece of cardboard that is used to go around your hot coffee cup. I prefer to think of it as a zesty scarf that wraps around your cup to keep it nice and warm.
Niggly Wiggly
This is just a fun word to say even if it was made up, but the name defines the little slit of paper that sticks out of all Hershey’s Kisses’ wrappers.
Tintinnabulation
Tintinnabulation is the ringing or tinkling sound you hear from a bell. Why such a complex word for such a simple sound? Who knows?!
Columella Nasi
It’s the bottom section of your nose that splits your nostrils. Although you most likely didn’t know the name until now, without it you would simply have one giant nostril, so be thankful.
Nurdle
A nurdle is the pea size amount of toothpaste you squeeze onto your brush. Technically, all you should be using is a nurdle every time or you’re using too much to brush your teeth.
Keeper
This is the part of a belt that holds the end in place once it is wrapped around. This might not seem like an important device, but you try having an extra long belt at the end with no keeper to keep it up.
Frisson
Whenever you do something crazy or thrilling and feel a rush of excitement, maybe even to the point of getting chills, you are experiencing a “frisson.”
Arachibutyrophobia
The fact that this fear has a word for itself is actually a lot stranger than the word itself. Arachibutyrophobia is the fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of your mouth. This seems to be more of an annoyance than a fear, but we’re not knocking anyone who is afraid of sticky peanut butter.
Grawlix
Grawlix is a set of random symbols stringed together to symbolize a profanity or swear word.
Peen
Do you know the part of the hammer that’s opposite the striking head? The part that’s ususally ball-shaped or curved? That called a peen.
Dysania
Dysania is the state in which you find it difficult to get out of bed in the morning. No matter what time you have to get out of bed, all of us feel a little dysania every now and then….or more like everyday.
Arms Akimbo
This is the name of the pose in which your hands are placed on your hips and the elbows are facing outwards. This is one of the most common poses you could possibly do, so now at least you know the name of it.
Octothorpe
#hashtag, pound sign, tic-tac-toe…Nope. It’s an Octothorpe.
Kummerspeck
Kummerspeck is a word in German which is the extra weight you gain from emotional eating, usually due to anxiety, stress, or sadness. This word translates to “grief bacon” in English which makes it that more interesting of a word because come on, bacon.
Googleganger
Similar to the phrase doppleganger, a googleganger is someone who shares the exact same name as you do. You would find people who had the same name or similar information as you by using Google, hence the origin of the name.
Griffonage
Griffonage is something many doctors have an issue with constantly doing which is writing illegibly.
Brannock Device
The device used to measure your foot at the shoe store actually has a name. Next time you’re in a shoe store ask for the Brannock Device, and see if the store associates know what you mean.
Mondegreen
Every time you mishear something like song lyrics or a phrase, you are experiencing mondegreen.
Philtrum
The philtrum is that deep grove in between your nose and mouth. Another slang term for this grove is the Cupid’s Bow Dimple.
Purlicue
The purlicue is that squishy space in between your thumb and forefinger. Now you know what to call it if you injure your purlicue for whatever reason.
Lemniscate
The Lemniscate is the proper name for the infinity sign. If you ever want to feel extra intelligent, go ahead and pull this word out of your vocabulary.
Spraint
Spraint is the poop of an otter. You probably didn’t need to know that word since you’ll most likely never use it, but now that you do know it go out there and use it (somehow).
- FERRULE , FRISSON , GRIFFONAGE , PURLICUE
- Tintinnabulation , Arachibutyrophobia , Dysania , Philtrum