Whatchamacallit

Our lives are full of ‘thingummys’, ‘thingamajigs’ and ‘whatjermecallits’ – those everyday items we should know the word for, or were once told but have since forgotten. Here are a few:

Glassine

Is the type of paper that lines boxes of chocolates or truffles and cups single chocolates. In a special manufacturing process, paper pulp is beaten to break down the fibres, and pressed into moulds, then allowed to dry into sheets.

After that, a process called ‘ calendering’ presses the sheets through hot rollers, making the paper grease- and air-proof. This is ideal for protecting chocolates from that white ‘bloom’ that can sometimes appear.

Aglet

Is the little plastic or metal tube at the end of your shoelace. Its purpose is to stop the thread of the lace from unravelling, as well as making it easier to feed through the shoe’s eyelets. (The word comes from the Old French aguillette, meaning needle.)

Before the invention of plastic, aglets were made of metals such as copper, brass and silver, glass and even stone. They were often ornamental and some were fashioned into small figures.

Should your aglet break, you may, of course, just buy another shoelace. But if you’re more frugal – especially in these credit crunch times – shoemakers recommend that you repair them by dripping melted candle wax onto the broken end.

The Interrobang

Is one of the most eloquent punctuation marks in the English language, combining an interrogative point, or question mark, and a bang (printers’ parlance for the exclamation mark). These are some sentences which require one: ‘She said what?!’; ‘He ate how many slices of cake?!’; ‘You’re going to have a baby?!’

No one uses them more eloquently than Captain Haddock in Herge’s Tintin stories.

Lunula

Is the white half-moon part at the base of the fingernail or toe nail. It is paler than the rest of the nail because it isn’t so firmly attached to the blood vessels and is most visible on the thumbs.

The thick fold of skin that overlaps the lunula, which manicurists push down, is called the eponychium (or cuticle) and it protects the area between the nail and the skin from harmful bacteria.

Philtrum

Is the vertical indentation between the upper lip and nose. The term derives from the Greek word philein, to kiss – for the ancient Greeks believed this area was one of the most erogenous spots on the body. Both Hitler and Charlie Chaplin covered theirs with a moustache- – while, apparently, SAS officers can kill someone simply by tapping-their philtrum in a certain way.

Tittle

If you’ve dotted an i, you have tittled, because the little dot above the i – and the j ( incidentally, the last letter to be included in our 26-letter alphabet) – is called a tittle. Hence the phrase ‘jot and tittle’, which indicates that every small detail has received attention.

Dewclaw

Is the tiny fifth claw on the inner part of a dog’s leg above the other toes, so called, rather romantically, because it brushes the dew from the grass. Dogs almost always have these tiny talons on the inside of their front legs and sometimes also on their hind legs.

Some people say that dewclaws are useless and should be removed, because they can get torn or cause damage (to clothes, furniture and the like). Others claim that this odd appendage is very useful to a dog, for example, to help pick up bones and sticks.

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