A weekly feature where Western Producer editorial staff respond to readers’ questions, explain what’s behind our news coverage, and comment on issues in journalism.
Today you may be coming into contact with a zarf, tang, aglet and bibcock without even knowing what they are.
And every day you look in the mirror and your philtrum reflects back at you.
As a Christian Science Monitor story points out, “there are many things we see and use … without ever knowing their proper names.”
CSM gives examples. A zarf is a cup holder for hot drinks. A tang is the end of the knife blade that fits into the handle. An aglet covers the ends of shoelaces.
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A bibcock is a faucet with a bent-down nozzle. A bobeche is the disk around the top of a candle that catches drippings. Escutcheon is the plate around a keyhole or bathroom faucet.
CSM even found out the name for “bright lights you see when you press your eyes shut tight” – phosphenes.
And the philtrum? It’s the small indentation below the nose and above the top lip of a human face.
For the bakers, what is the thin piece of orange or lemon peel used for flavoring in a recipe? Zest.
Save hemidemisemiquaver for winning at Trivial Pursuit: That’s what the 64th note of music is called.
On the same note but at the other of the word scale, INEWS ran a story about the University of Sault Saint Marie in Michigan producing a list of words and phrases that should be banished.
These include “frankly” and “peacekeeping force.”
While U.S. House of Representatives speaker Newt Gingrich used “frankly” 12 times in one speech, the United States Coast Guard invented a word for bailing water from a boat – “dewatering.”
INEWS reported the prefix “cyber” is especially overused, thanks to computers. There’s cyberspace, cyberconcerts, cybertherapy, cyberpunk and the place where “such wordsmiths should be banished to” – Cyberia.
