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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Spots as far as I remember. I don't remember them having an official name.
Bingley
Bingley
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addict
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Imagine the sparks that would fly should you knock those dominoes down.
And the only pollution would be a pleasant minty scent!
The point of this is really, what are those dots on dominoes called?
I think they are called pips on dice, so that may hold true for domini as well.
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Joined: Aug 2000
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Aug 2000
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Your suggestion, ww, would certainly "knock the spots off" the dominoes!! In UK, they are invariably called "spots", and I believe the phrase that I have enquoted, above, derives from that name. It means, for those who are wondering, to beat one's opponent soundly and unquestionably - a measure of infinite superiority in any field of endeavour. E.g, "I prefer Polo mints - they knock the spots off Life Saver Winto Greens!" 
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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what are those dots on dominoes called? "pip(3) NOUN: 1. *Games a. A dot indicating a unit of numerical value on dice or dominoes"http://www.bartleby.com/61/28/P0322800.html
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,981
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2000
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Yes, I'm with "spots" for the white dots on a domino http://dictionary.cambridge.org/define.asp?key=domino*1+0I assume that there is US/UK difference in usage. In passing, I noticed that "spot" http://dictionary.cambridge.org/define.asp?key=spot*1+0 is one of those words that has very different meanings depending on part of the world. In the UK, we might say "a spot of rain". It says that to call work "spotty" in the US and Australia would mean the same as "patchy" in the UK and Australia. If someone told me that some schoolwork was spotty I would have assumed that someone had spilt ink over it. I realised that a spot is called a zit in the US but didn't realise that if someone said that they had a spot it would not be understood to mean a zit. (is this correct?) To me, that is often the problem with dictionaries. It is sometimes tricky to pick out the kind of words that are part of everyday speech as opposed to those words that have a meaning that is understood but are rarely used (but not necessary obsolete). It is useful to be able to check out words with a group such as this. For example, I only discovered the other day that redundancy was not a uniformly understood term.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Dear WW: here is a link some of your kids might enjoy. It tells about how fireflies work: http://www.discoverchemistry.com/dcv2-docroot/student/hot_topics/bioluminescence/default.htmlI have seen fireflies many times, occasionally glow worms. In salt water, there are plankton and small jellyfishlike creatures that are a problem to navies, because they make so much light on dark night when disturbed by the ship's wake that the ship's location can be seen for many miles. Recently a Ukranian scientist was charged with betraying state secrets for publishing a paper about this!
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Joined: Nov 2000
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veteran
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veteran
Joined: Nov 2000
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Yes, Jo, you are correct that if you referred to a zit as a spot in the US, no one would know what you are talking about. John Cleese's "spotty twit" would be translated into USnese as "zit-faced nerd."
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