Sunday Observer Online
   

Home

Sunday, 10 June 2012

Untitled-1

observer
 ONLINE


OTHER PUBLICATIONS


OTHER LINKS

Marriage Proposals
Classified
Government Gazette

Info den

Sometimes you may find it difficult to remember the names by which certain objects, parts of the human body, animal parts, things people do or study are called, especially if they are not often referred to in day-to-day conversation. Here are the names by which some of the things we do ,hear or see are known by....

[General]

* The study of creatures such as Bigfoot, the chupacabra, and the Loch Ness monster is called cryptozoology. Zoologist Bernard Heuvelmans coined the term to describe his investigations of animals unknown to science.

* A building in which silence is enforced, like a library or school room, is referred to as a silentium.

* The study of flags and emblems is called vexillology.

* The study of signs is called semiotics.

* The making of maps is called cartography.

* The ear-splitting sound produced by the high notes of a bagpipe is called a skirl.

* A specific length of thread or yarn according to the type of fiber is called a hank. For linen, a hank is 274 metres (300 yards); for cotton, it is 768 metres (840 yards).

* The thin line of cloud that forms behind an aircraft at high altitudes is called a contrail.


[People]

*Someone who uses as few words as possible when speaking is called pauciloquent.

*People that studies fish are called ichthyologists.

* A philologist study linguistics and etymology.

* People who cannot smell suffer from anosmia.

* Loss of taste is called ageusia.

* Someone who habitually picks his/her nose is called a rhinotillexomaniac (rhino=nose, tillexis=habit of picking at something, mania=obsession with something.

* Picking one's nose in public is bad manners).

* In the early days of film making, people who worked on the sets were called movies. The films were called motion pictures.

* People who chase after rare birds are called twitchers.

* Shoemakers are commonly called cobblers but correctly speaking a cobbler is a shoe repairmen. A shoemaker is a cordwainer - they also made leather bottles and harnesses.

* One that speaks two languages - is bilingual - can be said to be diglot


Did you Know?

Mammals are the only animals with flaps around the ears.

African elephants only have four teeth to chew their food with.

A house fly lives only 14 days.

A dog was the first in space and a sheep, a duck and a rooster, the first to fly in a hot air balloon.

The oldest breed of dog is the Saluki.

The bee hummingbird of Cuba is the smallest bird in the world.

An ostrich can run up to 43mph (70 km/h).

The world's smallest dog is the Chihuahua, which means "tiny dog in the sky."

Pea crabs (the size of a pea) are the smallest crabs in the world.

About 75 per cent of wild birds die before they are six months old.

The pig is rated the fourth most intelligent animal but are mentioned only twice in the Bible. Sheep are mentioned 45 times and goats 88 times in the Bible. Dogs are mentioned 14 times and lions 89 times, but domestic cats are not mentioned.

Pork is the world's most widely-eaten meat.

Dinosaurs did not eat grass: there weren't any at that time.

A giraffe can clean its ears with its 50cm (20 in) tongue.

The South American giant anteater eats more than 30,000 ants a day.

The slowest fish is the sea horse, which moves along at about 0.01 mph (0.016 km/h).

Dolphins can reach 37 mph (60 km/h).

The heart of a blue whale is the size of a small car and the tongue of a blue whale is as long as an elephant. A blue whale weighs as much as 40 rhinos.

The scales of a crocodile are made of ceratin, the same substance that hooves and fingernails are made of.A crocodile's tongue is attached to the roof of its mouth and it cannot move it.


Names of some collectors

Collectors of dolls are called plangonologists.

The name for a teddy bear collector is archtophilist or arctophile.

A collector of paper money, coins, tokens, and related objects is called a numismatist.

A collector of butterflies is called a lepidopterist.

Conchologists collect animal shells.

A collector of antiques is an antiquarian.

A knife collector is called a machirologist.

A stamp collector is called a philatelist.

A copoclephilist collects key rings.

A deltiologist collects post cards.

A collector of hi-fi equipment is called an audiophile.

A collector of walking sticks is a rabdophilist.

A collector of paper money is called a notaphilist.

A bibiophilist collects books.

EMAIL |   PRINTABLE VIEW | FEEDBACK

ANCL TENDER NOTICE - WOODFREE PAPER
Casons Rent-A-Car
Millennium City
www.apiwenuwenapi.co.uk
LANKAPUVATH - National News Agency of Sri Lanka
Telecommunications Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka (TRCSL)
www.army.lk
www.news.lk
www.defence.lk
Donate Now | defence.lk
 

| News | Editorial | Finance | Features | Political | Security | Sports | Spectrum | Montage | Impact | World | Obituaries | Junior | Magazine |

 
 

Produced by Lake House Copyright © 2012 The Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd.

Comments and suggestions to : Web Editor