If you’re reduced to calling the tip of your shoelace a thingamajig, you might like to check out the list 33 Names of Things You Never Knew Had Names.

Here are a few of the spiffy names/definitions:

• keeper: the loop on a belt that keeps the end in place after it has passed through the buckle.
• obdormition: the numbness caused by pressure on a nerve; when a limb is `asleep’.
• rasceta: creases on the inside of the wrist.
• wamble: stomach rumbling.

I think my favourite is the hemidemisemiquaver.

Via The Presurfer.

Posted by Amy as Language at 1:00 AM EDT

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I was browsing through Wikipedia the other day and discovered that in India (population over one billion) there are 800 different languages and 2,000 dialects.

There are 23 different official languages (with Hindi and English being the two used for federal governmental purposes).

The various states also have official languages.

In Canada, way too many people complain because there are two official languages.

Posted by Amy as Travel, Language at 5:40 AM EDT

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In a blog post called Daving the Lily, blogger Roddy Lumsden has explained how numerous personal names have a different meaning in Old Scots.

For example, “Blair” means “to bleat like a sheep.” “Kyle” is a bowling pin, and “Ken” means “a whole season’s worth of cheese.”

This is definitely an entertaining read.

Via Vitamin Q.

Posted by Amy as Language at 5:00 AM EDT

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