Words For Things You Didn't Know Have Names, Vol. 4
Learn the difference between a pronk and a peruke
Definition:
a vagabond counterfeiter of documents (as licenses, passes, certificates)
Example Sentence:
“Ever since I can remember, he has lavished on me all the care he would have given an entire form of boys in an academy. and I suppose you think I’m still lying like a jarkman.”
“No,” Burbage said, turning to focus his entire attention on Rosaline. “No, I think you’ve been goaded into telling the truth at last. But not all of it.”
— Cothburn O’Neal, The Dark Lady (Crown Publishers, 1954)
Origins:
Jark is an archaic word for the seal of a counterfeit document (such as, for example, a fake driver’s license with the name “McLovin”). Its origins and etymology are unknown. Jarkman is among the many words that English has for a specific type of criminal which are almost alarming in their specificity: our language has words for a thief that steals jewelry by substituting a fake for a valuable piece (pennyweighter), someone who robs a drunk or sleeping person (jackroller), and someone who steals books (biblioklept).
Definition:
wig; especially : one of a type popular from the 17th to the early 19th century
Example Sentence:
In 18th-century England, it was best to be wary of any hands that reached too close to your hair. They could belong to a wig snatcher. … Socialites had to be extra cautious of wig snatchers. Throughout England and Europe, finely powdered perukes, also called periwigs, were in vogue among royal courts and the upper class. The more ornate and towering your wig, the higher your social standing. The expensive and easily removable headpieces led to a series of wig thefts: surprisingly elaborate and creative robberies involving animals, long poles, and young boys hauled on the shoulders of impostor butchers.
— Lauren Young, Atlas Obscura, 9 Jan. 2017
About the word:
Peruke comes from the Middle French perruque, itself from the Old Italian parrucca or perrucca for “hair” or “wig.” If you need the proper adjective to describe someone who is wearing a wig you may choose between peruked or bewigged. If you need a word meaning "not wearing a wig" English has you covered: unwigged. And if you need a word for a much-worn wig (and, let's be honest: who among us has not had need of this word?) we can offer you caxon.
Definition:
a depression left in the snow by a skier falling backward
Example Sentence:
Other fashionable ski spots … may come and go but St. Moritz just stays here, looking down its 320 kilometres (200 miles) of fine Alpine runs, sure in the knowledge that on its slopes exist sitzmarks made by the bottoms of some of the world’s most glamorous and richest people.
— Arturo Gonzales, The Toronto Star, 4 Oct. 1986
Origin:
Even though the English language is almost indescribably rich and varied in terms of its range and vocabulary, we have a relative dearth of words to apply to the physical evidence of doing a specific thing poorly. Sitzmark is an exception; it’s most likely a combination made in English from the German verb sitzen, meaning “to sit,” plus the English noun mark, as in “impression.”
Definition:
a device with four metal points so arranged that when any three are on the ground the fourth projects upward as a hazard to the hooves of horses or to pneumatic tires
Example Sentence:
Anyone who has traveled to the United Kingdom has probably marveled at the imperial bulk of the standard U.K. wall plug. … It’s a truly brilliant design. The only caveat is that, as with Lego, the rugged, bottom-heavy design of a U.K. plug makes it an almost scientifically perfect caltrop.
— John Brownlee, FastCompany.com, 9 July 2014
About this word:
Caltrop can be traced back to the Medieval Latin word for the star thistle, calcatrippa. And caltrop is still in use as a word for the star thistle, as well as for some other plants, including the puncture vine. Caltrop is not yet recognized as a synonym for the Lego blocks that your child leaves hidden in the living room carpet, although you may, if you choose, refer to them by this name after you step on them.
Definition:
a standing dead tree
Example Sentence:
When you reach the first rhododendron, look to the right for a big pine snag where half the trunk—on the side facing the trail—is missing. This was the result of a lightning strike. When lightning hits a live tree, it doesn’t spark a fire, but in microseconds it turns the sap into steam. If the charge just runs along one side of a tree, the steam will blow off the bark, and sometimes the wood, along its path on the trunk. However, if the charge runs along the whole tree, the steam explosion will blow the tree part, as it did with this white pine.
— Thomas Wessels, New England’s Roadside Ecology (Timber Press, 2021)
About this word:
The origins of snag are unclear, but it may have Scandinavian roots (pun intended), related to the Old Norse snagi, meaning “clothes peg.” Snag is no one-trick pony: in addition to referring to a simple standing dead tree, the word may also be used to refer to a tree or branch embedded in a lake or stream bed (and constituting a hazard to navigation).
Definition:
a kind of leaping gait (as of a deer, gazelle, or other quadruped)
Example Sentences:
Earlier, Manfred, our guide, told us a pronking impala can leap three times its own height; up to three metres, if it’s really agitated.
— Emma Gregg, the Independent (London, Eng.), 7 Sept. 2013Many animals bound, among them weasels and cats. The pronk has got to be my favorite. Watch an African wildlife film to see gazelles leap along hitting all four feet together. The quadrupeds’ pronk corresponds to our hop, but it certainly serves them far better.
— Gerry Rising, The Buffalo (New York) News, 30 May 2010
About this word:
Pronk was borrowed from Afrikaans (in which language it means "to show off") in the late 19th century, according to the Oxford English Dictionary. The word also functions as a verb, and has been occasionally spotted in extended use.
He emerged dressed like a prostitute in afro blond wig, leopard skin bustier, shiny leggings and seven-inch heels. Leaping in front of his client, he primped and pronked and posed for the paparazzi, while team mate Woebegone Handry wept great wallowing tears of grief.
— Cape Times (Cape Town, S. Afr.), 23 Feb. 2010
Definition:
a hare in its first year
Example Sentence:
One day he dared come home with a fresh-caught leveret. His mother was occupied in front, in the store. Quickly he skinned the animal and set it to roast. When his mother came from the store, she smelled the meat at once.
— Guy Endore, King of Paris (Simon & Schuster, 1956)
About the word:
Leveret bunny-hopped into Middle English (via Anglo-French) all the way from the Latin lepus, meaning “hare.” Speaking of bunny, this is the word often used to refer to a young rabbit, an animal that is distinct from a hare (although some people use these words interchangeably). Hares typically are larger than rabbits, have longer ears and hind legs, and often live in pairs in above-ground nests. Rabbits, in contrast, tend to live underground, in groups of up to 20.
Definition:
an upright often vase-shaped support for a rail
Example Sentence:
The steel-framed concert hall built for the Orfeó Català choir in 1908 was funded by public donations and is generally seen as Domènech’s most complete masterpiece. As with the Castell, the facade consists of exposed brick and iron and decorative mosaics with elements of Spanish and Arabic architecture. Inside, the dominant element is stained glass. Even the balusters on the stairway are glass and the concert hall itself is walled with glass so that in summer recitals begin in daylight, giving the sensation of listening to music in a garden.
— Stephen Burgen, The Guardian (London), 8 Feb. 2023
About the word:
Ultimately from the Greek word for the wild pomegranate flower (due to its distinctive shape), balaustion. An entire row of balusters topped by a rail is a balustrade; the rail along the top of the balustrade is often referred to as the banister.
Definition:
a group of stars that form a pattern in the night sky
Example Sentence:
This is one of the best weeks of the year to check-out the vast summer constellation of Sagittarius “the Archer,” which is positioned across the densest star fields of the Milky Way galaxy. It’s also over the galaxy’s center, so while you look in the direction of Sagittarius you’re looking at galactic central point. The most interesting sight here isn’t the shape of the archer—which is pretty hard to see—but a smaller shape (stargazers call it an asterism) called the “Teapot” …
— Jamie Carter, Forbes, 17 July 2022
About the word:
The term asterism does not now usually refer to a constellation but to a star pattern that makes up part of a constellation or that includes stars from more than one constellation. It comes from the Greek asterizein, “to arrange in constellations.” Asterism has an etymological connection with disaster, another word that comes from the stars: disaster comes from prefix dis- and the Latin astro ("star").
Definition:
a young, untrained circus elephant
Example Sentence:
Born in Thailand, [Vance] was imported to West Palm Beach, Fla., in 1972 to appear as one of the “Seven Dwarfs” at Lion Country Safari. “He was just a green little punk then,” says his current owner/trainer Michael Hackenberger. When he grew too large to remain a “dwarf,” he was sold to major circus-elephant owner, Gary Johnson, who bestowed on him the traditional elephant name of Vance.
— Marjorie Green, The Toronto Star, 16 Aug. 1990
Origins:
The origins of punk are unknown, but among its many definitions which predate the “untrained circus elephant” sense (which is covered in our Unabridged Dictionary) is “a beginner or novice.” Just like Vance!
