25 Things You Would Never Guess Actually Have Names

Posted by , Updated on December 29, 2023

English is a strange and complex language, but its strangeness may reach further than you thought. There are things that we see everyday that we may not even know the name of, or we didn’t even know had a name to begin with. Either way, you are going to be seeing some pretty peculiar names for common items that you may see on a daily basics. These are 25 Things You Would Never Guess Actually Have Names.

25

Petrichor

Rainhttps://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-44904298

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.

24

Ferrule

ferrulewikipedia

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.

23

Morton's Toe

morton's toehttps://www.verywellfit.com/what-is-mortons-toe-3435533

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.

22

Zarf

zarf - coffee cup with sleeve on countermoma.org

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.

21

Niggly Wiggly

niggly wiggly - Hershey's kissescloudigylaw.com

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.

20

Tintinnabulation

ringing a bellwikipedia

Tintinnabulation is the ringing or tinkling sound you hear from a bell. Why such a complex word for such a simple sound? Who knows?!

19

Columella Nasi

big nosewikipedia

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.

18

Nurdle

drop of toothpaste on toothbrushhttps://www.waywordradio.org/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.

17

Keeper

belt keeperwikipedia

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.

16

Frisson

dj on stagewikipedia

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.”

15

Arachibutyrophobia

Peanut Butterwikipedia

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.

14

Grawlix

Cartoon Swearingwikipedia

Grawlix is a set of random symbols stringed together to symbolize a profanity or swear word.

13

Peen

hammerwikipedia

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.

12

Dysania

Dysaniawikipedia

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.

11

Arms Akimbo

Arms akimbowikipedia

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.

10

Octothorpe

pound signwikipedia

#hashtag, pound sign, tic-tac-toe…Nope. It’s an Octothorpe.

9

Kummerspeck

women eating a lot of food emotional eatingikatbag.com

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.

8

Googleganger

Google Logowikihow

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.

7

Griffonage

Doctor Writingforum.t-tapp.com

Griffonage is something many doctors have an issue with constantly doing which is writing illegibly.

6

Brannock Device

brannock deviceamazon

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.

5

Mondegreen

mondegreen - hi & lois cartoon "I pledge a legion..."de-band-jabba.nl

Every time you mishear something like song lyrics or a phrase, you are experiencing mondegreen.

4

Philtrum

baby mouthwikipedia

The philtrum is that deep grove in between your nose and mouth. Another slang term for this grove is the Cupid’s Bow Dimple.

3

Purlicue

handswikipedia

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.

2

Lemniscate

infinty

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.

1

Spraint

otterwikipedia

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).



Feature: ThegreenjToothpasteonbrushCC BY-SA 3.0 text added
Photo: 1. Chris Paul from England, North American River Otter - CNP 3361 (7056954311), CC BY 2.0 , 2. shutterstock, 3. pixabay (Public Domain), 4. Rick Kimpel, Baby mouth, CC BY-SA 2.0 , 5. via tvtropes.org/ (Fair Use: Illustrative Purposes Only), 6. evan p. cordes via flickr, Photo, CC BY 2.0, 7. https://www.misawa.af.mil (Public Domain), 8. (Public Domain), 9. Vic via flickr, emotional_eating, CC BY 2.0, 10. pixabay (Public Domain), 11. https://www.flickr.com, Akimbo, CC BY 2.0, 12. https://pxhere.com (Public Domain), 13. HomeSpot HQ, Hammer, CC BY 2.0, 14. Threeboy from Richmond, Canada, Jay & Trey Cartoon Swearing, CC BY 2.0, 15. PiccoloNamek at English Wikipedia, PeanutButter, CC BY-SA 3.0, 16. Andymoor1980, Andy Moor DJ 2010, CC BY-SA 3.0 , 17. publicdomainpictures.net (Public Domain), 18. Thegreenj, Toothpasteonbrush, CC BY-SA 3.0 , 19. publicdomainpictures.net (Public Domain), 20. U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Stanley Moy/ Released (Public Domain), 21. bfishadow via flickr, Hershey's Kisses, CC BY 2.0, 22. Nirzar, Coffee-cup-sleeve, CC BY-SA 4.0 , 23. wikimedia commons (Public Domain), 24. Alex Morfin, Pencil eraser, CC BY-SA 3.0 , 25. Darkest tree, Plum rain in Shinjuku, Tokyo, CC BY-SA 4.0