People who chase after rare birds are called twitchers. The fleshy projection above the bill on a turkey is called a snood. The ear-splitting sound produced by the high notes of a bagpipe is called a skirl. The making of maps is called cartography. The study of flags and emblems is called vexillology. Someone who habitually picks his/her nose is called a rhinotillexomaniac (rhino=nose, tillexis=habit of picking at something, mania=obsession with something).Ī building in which silence is enforced, like a library or school room, is referred to as a silentium.
The hairless area of roughened skin at the tip of a bear’s snout is called the rhinarium. People who cannot smell suffer from anosmia. The small cup in which an espresso is served is called a demitasse.Ī philologist study linguistics and etymology. The central shaft of a bird’s feather which bears the vane or web of the feather is called a rachis. In early France the distance a man could walk while smoking one pipeful of tobacco was called a pipee. Shopaholics are the people who do not suffer from chrematophobia, which is the fear of touching money. An easily remembered melody is called a tune.Ĭompulsive shopping was identified by a German psychiatrist almost a hundred years ago.
It is the size of a pea.Ī melody is a group of notes in a certain order that results in a sweet or agreeable sound. The gland responsible for producing the hormone that regulates growth is called the pituitary gland. The little hole in the sink that lets the water drain out, instead of flowing over the side, is called a porcelator.
The pin that holds a hinge together is called a pintle. The little lump of flesh just forward of your ear canal is called a tragus – it also aids in capturing sounds that come from behind you. People that study fish are called ichthyologists. Someone who uses as few words as possible when speaking is called pauciloquent. Revealing personality traits through writing is referred to as graphology. The back of the human hand is the opisthenar. The tendency of the leaves or petals of certain plants to assume a different position at night is called nyctitropism. In the early days of film making, people who worked on the sets were called movies. Originally a fathom was the space reached by with two arms outstretched. The thin line of cloud that forms behind an aircraft at high altitudes is called a contrail.Ī depth of 2 fathoms (3,6 metres) is called a Mark Twain. The white part of your fingernail is called the lunula. For linen, a hank is 274 metres (300 yards) for cotton, it is 768 metres (840 yards). 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.Ī specific length of thread or yarn according to the type of fiber is called a hank.
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, a sniglet coined by comedian Rich Hall (who also coined “sniglet”). A shoemaker is a cordwainer – they also made leather bottles and harnesses. Shoemakers are commonly called cobblers but correctly speaking a cobbler is a shoe repairmen. The working section of a piano is called the action. In a casino, however, ducks is a nickname for a pair of deuces. The males of the species are called drakes. One that speaks two languages – is bilingual – can be said to be diglot.ĭucks are never male. The apparatus used in alcohol distilleries for freeing the spirit from water is called the dephlegmator. Zoologist Bernard Heuvelmans coined the term to describe his investigations of animals unknown to science. The study of creatures such as Bigfoot, the chupacabra, and the Loch Ness monster is called cryptozoology. The plastic things on the end of shoelaces are called aglets. Mid-men, the male versions of mid-wives, are called accouchers. Sometimes it’s on the tip of your tongue… “What is it called again?” It’s not always easy to remember those out-of-the-ordinary things but to refresh your memory, here’s what it is called. Home » trivia » What is it called? What is it called?