Discover the richness of the English language through 10 uncommon words that uniquely define everyday objects and concepts you may not have known existed.
Aglet
An aglet is a metal or a plastic sheath that is used to finish off the end of a shoelace or drawstring to prevent it from fraying. It’s firmness makes it easier to hold and feed the cord/lace through the eyelets or lugs.
Many sources credit Harvey Kennedy of having invented and popularized it.
Example sentence: Homemade Aglets can be made out of adhesive tape, wax, resin, glue, tubing, and by simply knotting or melting the end of a lace or cord.
Petrichor
It is the earthy scent produced when rain falls on dry soil. Petrichor was coined by two Australian chemists, Isabel Jou Bear and Richard Grenfell Thomas, in 1964.
Example sentence: There is only one thing that excites me about monsoon and that is the distinctive fragrance of petrichor.
Peen
It is the part of a hammer head that you don’t use for hammering, which is usually curved or spherical or wedge-shaped.
Example sentence: The carpenter used his wedge shaped Peen to extract the nail from the wooden plank.
Philtrum
It is the vertical groove on the median line of the upper lip.
Example Sentence: What makes Kelly attractive is her well-defined Philtrum.
Muntin and Mullion
A Muntin is a wooden (or sometimes metal) strip that runs between the panes of glass in a window frame, separating the panes while helping to hold each in place. Muntin’s are the very narrow strips of wood that divide up the individual panes.
A Mullion is a heavy vertical or horizontal piece that adjoins two windows together. In other words, it acts as the sort of frame of the window. It has nothing to do with the interior panes of glass. It holds the window as a whole.
Example sentence: I thought the ball would smash the window, but fortunately it hit a Muntin. The wooden Mullions were later changed to aluminum for cost saving.
Glabella
The space between your eyebrows.
Example sentence: In Hindu tradition, women place a mark or a sticker on their Glabella as a sign of marital status or, in some cases, beauty. Because it is the location of the third eye, a deeper connection for this glabellar adornment can also be spiritual.
Tittle
It is the dot that appears above the letters ‘i’ and ‘j’ when they are written in lowercase.
Example sentence: I used to say “dots above the j or i.” until I learned that the word for it is ‘Tittle’.
Ferrule
It is the metal band on a pencil that attaches the eraser. Same for the bristles on a brush. Ferrule is a word for a simple metal band or a cap.
Example Sentence: Ferrule has versatile applications. It is the cap at the end of a cane, crutch, or a leg in a chair. It is the knob at the hub of an umbrella; it fits together tubes and pipes. Binds paintbrush handles to bristles and pencils to erasers.
Snellan Chart
The chart when you look at when you take an eye exam. It was developed by a Dutch ophthalmologist, Herman Snellen in 1862.
Example sentence: The Snellen chart is an eye chart that is used to measure visual acuity. The normal Snellen chart is printed with eleven lines of block letters.
