# Names for common things we see every day that people may not know the name to. **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 21, 2005, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/names-for-common-things-we-see-every-day-that-people-may-not-know-the-name-to/322648 "2005-09-21T02:52:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2014, 9:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/names-for-common-things-we-see-every-day-that-people-may-not-know-the-name-to/322648/101 "2014-10-29T09:14:38Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#): > > It’s unusual to hear the word “yarmulke” anymore. Maybe Jews don’t call it a “yarmulke” any more, but I think the rest of us still do. It is news to me that a Jew wears a [kippah](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/25/Kipper.JPG) on his head. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2014, 12:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/names-for-common-things-we-see-every-day-that-people-may-not-know-the-name-to/322648/102 "2014-10-29T12:07:16Z")
> [@njtt](#): > > It is news to me that a Jew wears a kippah on his head. That was my point in posting it. And it’s pronounced “kee-pah.” ---
**Author:** ![Napkin\_Sandwich](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/8dc957/32.png) [@Napkin\_Sandwich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Napkin_Sandwich)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2014, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/names-for-common-things-we-see-every-day-that-people-may-not-know-the-name-to/322648/103 "2014-10-30T05:23:10Z")
In my part of the world the little silver balls used to decorate cakes etc are called cachous. ---
**Author:** ![Dereknocue67](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/6de8d8/32.png) [@Dereknocue67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dereknocue67)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2014, 7:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/names-for-common-things-we-see-every-day-that-people-may-not-know-the-name-to/322648/104 "2014-10-30T07:35:50Z")
On eyeglasses, the piece running from the lens to your ear is called the temple. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2014, 8:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/names-for-common-things-we-see-every-day-that-people-may-not-know-the-name-to/322648/105 "2014-10-30T08:01:31Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#): > > Actually, that was a joke. A woman in the 15th century, Juliana Berners, Prioress of Sopewell, wrote a book on hunting, and it was basically serious, but she slipped in some jokes. There was a chapter of collective nouns for animals that were hunted, like a herd of deer, which were things hunters might want to know, but after the serious animals on the list, she included a clowder (clutter) of cats, a shrewdness of apes, a baren [sic] of mules, a murder of crows, and then she went on to groups of people: a superfluity of nuns, a fighting of beggars, a lying of pardoners, an incredibility of cuckolds, among many others. It’s very funny. > > A lot of people didn’t get that it was a joke, though, and some of the terms actually entered the language. And a trio of London streetwalkers could be variously: A trey of tarts, A fanfare of strumpets, or An anthology of English pros. ---
**Author:** ![Bad\_News\_Baboon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/5fc32e/32.png) [@Bad\_News\_Baboon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bad_News_Baboon)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2014, 11:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/names-for-common-things-we-see-every-day-that-people-may-not-know-the-name-to/322648/106 "2014-10-30T11:48:14Z")
> [@guizot](#): > > When two separate windows in a wall are really close together, so they look almost like one big window with a thin vertical support in the middle–that support is a _mullion_. And muntins are the pieces that separate the panes of glass in a window unit. A lot of people call them mullions, but it’s not technically correct. An astragel is like a mullion, but between doors. It is that “post” some double doors have. A double dot is not always an umlaut. When placed over a second vowel, it is used to tell the reader both vowels are pronounced individually. Zoe should be pronounced like Zoh. Zoë, however, is zoh-ee. It’s called diaeresis. ---
**Author:** ![gallows\_fodder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8c91f0/32.png) [@gallows\_fodder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gallows_fodder)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2014, 12:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/names-for-common-things-we-see-every-day-that-people-may-not-know-the-name-to/322648/107 "2014-10-30T12:25:10Z")
The gesture you make when you flick something by bringing the fingernail side of your finger against the pad of your thumb and flicking out forcefully is called a filip. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2014, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/names-for-common-things-we-see-every-day-that-people-may-not-know-the-name-to/322648/108 "2014-10-30T13:46:56Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > And a trio of London streetwalkers could be variously: > > A trey of tarts, > > A fanfare of strumpets, or > > An anthology of English pros. We should start another thread… ---
**Author:** ![Bam\_Boo\_Gut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8c91f0/32.png) [@Bam\_Boo\_Gut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bam_Boo_Gut)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2014, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/names-for-common-things-we-see-every-day-that-people-may-not-know-the-name-to/322648/109 "2014-10-30T15:32:36Z")
That piece of folded paper you’ve shoved under the table leg to stop it wobbling - it’s a shim! A shim is a wedgey thing you shove in to make something fit. ---
**Author:** ![Bozuit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/edb3f5/32.png) [@Bozuit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bozuit)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2014, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/names-for-common-things-we-see-every-day-that-people-may-not-know-the-name-to/322648/110 "2014-10-31T01:27:57Z")
> [@TheSeaOtter](#): > > Other things (besides animals) also called a **frog** : … The indentation in a brick is called a frog. > [@njtt](#): > > bort Are you talking to me? ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2014, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/names-for-common-things-we-see-every-day-that-people-may-not-know-the-name-to/322648/111 "2014-10-31T05:00:54Z")
> [@phouka](#): > > The tiny piece of paper punches out by a hole puncher is called a chad. And the two-pronged metal pin you might insert through the hole where the chad used to be to hold your papers together is called a brad. ---
**Author:** ![Enright3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/enright3/32/2897_2.png) [@Enright3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enright3)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2014, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/names-for-common-things-we-see-every-day-that-people-may-not-know-the-name-to/322648/112 "2014-10-31T15:26:08Z")
> [@guizot](#): > > When two separate windows in a wall are really close together, so they look almost like one big window with a thin vertical support in the middle–that support is a _mullion_. And when you have double doors and there is a piece of molding to seal between the pair of doors, that molding is called an **astragal**. The astragal closes the clearance gap. The vertical member (molding) attaches to a stile on one of a pair of doors against which the other door closes. ---
**Author:** ![Isilder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/cc9497/32.png) [@Isilder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isilder)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2014, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/names-for-common-things-we-see-every-day-that-people-may-not-know-the-name-to/322648/113 "2014-11-01T12:26:08Z")
If you pause to consider your navel then you are engaging in Omphaloskepsis … Actually there is the connotation that you are meditating … on purpose ? or engaging in internal dialog. Children do it during “eidetic play”, where they are so lost in their own game its like its their reality… as if its what they “see”. ---
**Author:** ![LH75](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lh75/32/4438_2.png) [@LH75](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LH75)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2014, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/names-for-common-things-we-see-every-day-that-people-may-not-know-the-name-to/322648/114 "2014-11-01T14:01:34Z")
A group of flamingos is called a flamboyance [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/names-for-common-things-we-see-every-day-that-people-may-not-know-the-name-to/322648.md?page=5)