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you know what i mean.. the word for the re-enforced tip of a shoelace.. the name of the small valley -between the upper lip and nostrils..the term for the fold in the skin of the upper eyelid, common in people from asia..
you know the sort..
like chalaza--the technical term for the rope like membrane you find in realy fresh eggs.. that keeps the yolk centered.. (you've all seen that rope like membrane.. have you every thought about what is was called?)
supple the correct words for the first few suggestions. add more..
we all have favorite little words, words that detail our lives..
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aglet... philtrum... epicanthus too easy; next? 
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Carpal Tunnel
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and your favorite-(is it one of those, or some other odd little word?) goodness knows, there are enough odd little words..
it wasn't a game.. and since aglet, philtrum, epicanthus have all been discussed.. to post them is a sort of yart.. is this it? we've exhausted the list of odd little words in english? at a count of 4?
no one has any?
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Carpal Tunnel
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You trying to ruin every future game of HogWash®?
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Carpal Tunnel
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Well, of troy, here are some everyday words for everyday things we might take for granted. Not exactly what you had in mind for unusual-sounding words, but these are fun to think about, too:
I like the name for the individual plates on a turtle's shell--and their various names depending upon where they're located on the carapace, which I also like--but I know you all already know that one fersure.
There are two t-words for the parts of the umbrella at the outmost stretching points: one that fits over the other one that the secures the stretch, both beginning with a 't'.
Parts of the hammer head? Human/animal names: the top, the lateral side, the flat front that hits what's being hammered, and the back part that looks like a double metal pony tail. Each of these has the name of a feature of an animal--most mammals would qualify.
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enthusiast
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I just had my bike tuned up, and the awesome and ever informative BikeMobile guy told me that the little thingies covering the connections of the spokes onto the rim are called nipples. My question: what are they called in German? Same as live nipples (which translate as breast warts)? Maybe wsieber knows.
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enthusiast
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Holy smokes! Am I ever lazy, and not too observant. I was sitting here quite comfortably with my feet propped up on a book on top of my desk. It's my German-English dictionary!!!! So I looked it up, and I'm guessing the answer is Nippel, which isn't quite as exciting as Brustwarze.
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...which isn't quite as exciting as Brustwarze.Not to burst any bubbles here, but, nothing should be *as exciting as calling them "breast warts". Nothing. 
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To a plumber, a nipple is a piece of pipe, relatively short, with male threads on both ends.
And I just happened to wonder--why is a plumber called that?
I know about plumb bobs and plumb lines to make things plumb
square--but those aren't solely related to water pipes, in and out.
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I think that plumber may relate to the lead with which they used to work, back in the mad old days when plumbers worked with lead pipes.
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"... and, behold, the LORD stood upon a wall made by a plumbline, with a plumbline in his hand. And the LORD said unto me, Amos, what seest thou? And I said, A plumbline. Then said the LORD, Behold, I will set a plumbline in the midst of my people Israel: I will not again pass by them any more." Amos 7:7-8 Authorized Version.
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ah, that's what was meant by, "Let my people go." always wondered...
formerly known as etaoin...
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old hand
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old hand
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Lead would be my guess too, and in case the etymology is still not frightfully clear - Latin (and 'scientific') for Lead is plumbum - hence it's abbreviation Pb on the Periodic Table (oh glorious Mendeleev, thou shouldst have been living now...)
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old hand
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And, oh yes, to Helen - some of my favourite words aren't necessarily for small, often forgotten things, but include rather large things. I'm speaking of the names we give certain groups of animals (and possibly plants, but I'm no botanist). Some current favourites include cetaceans and pinnipeds, and since tortoise shells were mentioned, chelonians. And then (as a sort of neat segue) the remarkable set of animal-alike adjectives - equine, porcine, vulpine, aquiline, lupine and so on. Bovine above all, of course...
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> Bovine above all, of course...
You can lose that b in these here parts.
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Oh, shanks, for you, one of my favorite lines, (reserved for very special people..
i love you, i love you, i love you..
i'll love you till the cows come home.
and then, i'll go back to loving the cows!
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Thanks to Max and Shanks for leading me in the right direction. And PopS, all right! I'd forgotten that Amos was a plumbing prophet!
Is there a word for puns like that elementary one I just used(sorry), that work in print but not in speech?
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old hand
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Helen
i'll love you till the cows come home
Thanks for that. Of course, we could start from here, work our way through Gray's 'Elegy', meditate about unknown Caesar's and then... and then...
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Pooh-Bah
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"The tractor homeward chugs its smoky way,
And the farmer to his supper and TV."
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old hand
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And leaves the world to CO and to me?
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Pooh-Bah
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WW, I knew that the front of a hammer is a face, the "pony tails" you describe are nail-puller claws, and the top?
Don't know, that's where you see the eye, though, that the
handle goes through. Looking for those other words I was surprised to find that the face is on the nose instead of vice-versa, and the sides of the head are, more logically,
cheeks.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Well, naturally, these weren't my terms but terms from a pictorial dictionary I bought years back. I thought the term 'cheeks' was very sweet for the sides, and the eye for the top--can't imagine why--and, yes, the claw for what looks like a stiff, double ponytail to me, and the face at the front. Carpenter who named that eye must have had one too many.
Also interesting: the mallet has two 'heads' rather than two 'faces.'
And the ball peen has a 'peen' and a 'face'--but I don't know what a 'peen' is outside of a ball peen hammer.
These kinds of facts come into play when reading period mysteries, don't they.
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addict
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and the eye for the top--can't imagine why
I suspect it looked more like an eye on an old-fashioned hammer, when there would often be a metal spike nailed into the top of the wooden handle to help it spread and grip the metal head. Think of the head of the spike as the pupil/iris and the wood as the sclera (another great little word) of the eye.
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I wish someone could find an illustration of this spiked hammer of which Flatlander writes...
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Carpal Tunnel
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I wooda called it a wedge rather than spike. must be a pic somewhere...
formerly known as etaoin...
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Here's a quote from the page you posted [Thanks, Faldage]:
For Pete's sake, your a blacksmith, make some wedges!
Would you like to know how many times I've read that spelling error this year?
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Carpal Tunnel
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These are odd to me: mashie, niblick.
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old hand
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They're odd to me too, and to just about anybody, I suspect. Along with 'spoon', and a few others, I genuinely believe they only survive in Wodehouse and relics of the names that golfers gave their clubs. Today, of course, they're all numbered!
cheer
the sunshine warrior
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yeah, mostly gone to woods and irons now, sadly..
formerly known as etaoin...
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>I genuinely believe they only survive in Wodehouse and relics of the names that golfers gave their clubs. Today, of course, they're all numbered!
In my Wodehouse phase, I read a foreword to one of his books in which he decried the change to numbered woods and irons, and defended the more colourful names that he continued to use up to the end.
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"I believe one still drives with a driver nowadays, though at any moment we may have to start calling it the Number One wood. But where is the mashie now, where the cleek, the spoon and the baffy?"
~P.G. Wodehouse
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Oh my gosh, I want the name of the book please. Hubby and his golfing buddy (they're like the Bobsy twins joined at the hip) always roll their eyes when I use a different name for anything having to do with golf. Apprently, you don't get caught in a sandpit but a sandtrap, and the big ole grass on the sides is rough, not grunge. Also, yodeling while climbing up a hill using your five-iron as a cane is strictly prohibited. I'd love to get those names. Then I'd be using REAL names and they couldn't roll their eyes. I mean really, how boring is it to say, "I'll use my driver" when you could say "Gimme my mashie, I'll whack that outta here." 
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yodeling while climbing up a hill using your five-iron as a cane is strictly prohibited. Dang, bel, don't they ever let you have any fun?
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stranger
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dave, you'd use ferule? aglet is the more common answer--tsuwm provided it early on.. (but since it wasn't really a question, but rather an invitation to submit words..)
i think of a ferule as the small piece of metal all along the top edge of a ruler--the thing that lets you run a pencil along the smooth sharp edge to get a straight line..
the OUD(oxford universal) says a ferule can mean beat with a stick, or the stick you are beating with!, (ie, a rod, a cane or other instrument of punishment, esp. a flat ruler)--(but doesn't single out the metal edge of ruler, so...)
all from a word for a giant fennel!
aglet is a diminutive from aiguille--which is a term for a pointy peak (mountain) particularlly one of the alps..
and aglet is a metal tag or point of lace, --hence any small tag, pendant or spangle, worn as an ornament on clothing.. (eventually, the decorated tips of lace stays on woman dresses..)
i suppose newer dictionaries might have more.. (the OUD is from 1955.)-- and goodness knows, if i had a penny for every time i was wrong, i'd be rich!
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A ferrule is also the small metal cap on either end of a fuse.
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A ferule is also a ring, usually metal, that slips over the end of a tube and "bunches up" inside a connector or other fitting to ensure a firm and lasting application.
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