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Objects with no name

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    bspacebspace Posts: 14,303
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    marfjam wrote: »
    The computer interface for digital image devices (scanners, cameras etc.) - TWAIN. Stands for "Thing Without An Interesting Name".

    nope
    it's not an acronym

    it comes from Kipling's The Ballad of East and West — '...and never the twain shall meet...'
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    BrotherDanielBrotherDaniel Posts: 1,439
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    spiney2 wrote: »
    the back of the knee.

    Knee backs folk call them
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    Benry_GaleBenry_Gale Posts: 1,226
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    The concept that famously has no real English name but does in other languages is 'ringing someone up on their mobile with no intention that they will answer it'. Teenagers who have to buy credit for their phones traditionally use it. "When I get near your house, I'll *call you so your phone rings but you don't pick up so it doesn't use any of my credit*. "

    In Bangla there is a word meaning "affectionately angry", which I like a lot.

    And in Japanese there is an expression 'mono no aware', which translates, roughly, as 'the feeling of melancholy beauty we experience in watching things fade and pass'. They use it to describe, for example, the feeling of watching cherry blossom falling from the tree, leaving the branches bare; it implies both regret and the sense that there is a new beauty in the process which may even be greater than the beauty of the tree in full bloom.
    My favourite example of foreign words we need a decent equivalent of is 'shemomedjamo', a Georgian word meaning to eat well past the point of fullness, just because the food is tasty. Another great one is the German 'neadbau', a building constructed for no other reason than to piss off the neighbours.
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    gomezzgomezz Posts: 44,633
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    The horse in America's song about riding out into the desert has no name.
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    jarryhackjarryhack Posts: 5,076
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    The concept that famously has no real English name but does in other languages is 'ringing someone up on their mobile with no intention that they will answer it'. Teenagers who have to buy credit for their phones traditionally use it. "When I get near your house, I'll *call you so your phone rings but you don't pick up so it doesn't use any of my credit*. "

    In Bangla there is a word meaning "affectionately angry", which I like a lot.

    And in Japanese there is an expression 'mono no aware', which translates, roughly, as 'the feeling of melancholy beauty we experience in watching things fade and pass'. They use it to describe, for example, the feeling of watching cherry blossom falling from the tree, leaving the branches bare; it implies both regret and the sense that there is a new beauty in the process which may even be greater than the beauty of the tree in full bloom.


    I call that ringing thing Dropcall.
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    CentaurionCentaurion Posts: 2,060
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    According to QI the thing that you sit on when having a dump has no name.

    Not a toilet, nor a WC, nor a lavatory............that big porcelain white thing it has no name.
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    PrinceOfDenmarkPrinceOfDenmark Posts: 2,761
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    Is there any objects without a name? Or does everything have a name?

    It's generally accepted that there are more species of insects yet to be discovered than there are already documented. So that's at least around 1 million different types of "objects" that don't yet have a name.
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    KennedyCKennedyC Posts: 1,289
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    The end of a shoelace is called the Telomere. The word was latter adopted to describe the repeating pattern of genes at the ends of the chromosomes.

    The OP was talking about objects rather than concepts or emotions. With regard to the naming of objects there is usually only a short span of time for which an object has no name. The English language is very quick to adopt either an existing foreign name or make one up. In Russian and German they tend to go with joining multiple words into a new word.
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    gomezzgomezz Posts: 44,633
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    Centaurion wrote: »
    that big porcelain white thing it has no name.
    But it is not the thing I sit on. Far too chilly on the nether regions! :o
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    Keiō LineKeiō Line Posts: 12,979
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    Those things you used to see in cartoons and old movies.

    They operated on a rail track and you propelled itself along the track by two people standing on either side of a sea-saw type device and pushing up and down.
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    lemoncurdlemoncurd Posts: 57,778
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    Keiō Line wrote: »
    Those things you used to see in cartoons and old movies.

    They operated on a rail track and you propelled itself along the track by two people standing on either side of a sea-saw type device and pushing up and down.

    Called a "handcar".

    Mine next!

    What is the molded bit of plastic that contains alternating slits at 90-degree offsets that surrounds a cable or wire before it enters a plug (designed to prevent the wire flexing too much at that point) called?
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    gomezzgomezz Posts: 44,633
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    Cable grip?
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    SaturnVSaturnV Posts: 11,519
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    Centaurion wrote: »
    According to QI the thing that you sit on when having a dump has no name.

    Not a toilet, nor a WC, nor a lavatory............that big porcelain white thing it has no name.

    That's the pan. Why would they say it has no name?
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    lemoncurdlemoncurd Posts: 57,778
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    gomezz wrote: »
    Cable grip?

    A Google Images search for that doesn't come up with the thing I'm thinking of.
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    gomezzgomezz Posts: 44,633
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    lemoncurdlemoncurd Posts: 57,778
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    gomezz wrote: »

    More specifically "Cable gland cord grip":
    https://www.asi-ez.com/member/x063-Cable-Gland-Cord-Grip.asp

    Bit of a mouthful! :o
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    arfcdfarfcdf Posts: 80
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    Reading the above only bears out the assertion that stupid questions deserve stupid answers
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    xblingxbling Posts: 2,041
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    Do those metal dustbins with holes in that you see on picket lines have a name? I have always wondered that?
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    arfcdfarfcdf Posts: 80
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    And it continues.
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    xblingxbling Posts: 2,041
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    arfcdf wrote: »
    And it continues.

    To be fair they can't be just called to dustbins as they have holes in and the dust and rubbish would escape.
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    gomezzgomezz Posts: 44,633
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    (rough made) braziers?
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    anne_666anne_666 Posts: 72,891
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    Centaurion wrote: »
    According to QI the thing that you sit on when having a dump has no name.

    Not a toilet, nor a WC, nor a lavatory............that big porcelain white thing it has no name.

    Do you mean the lavatory bowl?

    http://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/lavatory-bowl


    http://www.sanitec-kolo.com/subcategory/wall_hanging_toilet_bowls/010030-020030/1
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    xblingxbling Posts: 2,041
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    gomezz wrote: »
    (rough made) braziers?

    arfcdf see!
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    BrotherDanielBrotherDaniel Posts: 1,439
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    It's generally accepted that there are more species of insects yet to be discovered than there are already documented. So that's at least around 1 million different types of "objects" that don't yet have a name.

    But until they're discovered do they exist?
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    balthasarbalthasar Posts: 2,824
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    When you twist off a bottle cap, there is a piece that remains attached bottle, does that have a name?
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