CBC Radio ran a highly entertaining radio spot called Wanted Words, in which listeners submitted suggestioned new words to describe things:
- What do you call the long, cold, dark Canadian period between New Year's and Good Friday? Forevuary.
- What do you call someone whose plants always die prematurely? Hortikillturist.
- What do you call @? Atpersand, ampersend, Circle-A (from a rancher in B.C.)
- What do you call the warmth left behind when you sit in a recently occupied seat? Bumcano.
In working on
CLIPS, we have come up with a few surprising wanted Mathematical words:
- What do you call the superclass of transformations that take (x,y) and map it to (x,ay)? For some values of a we call it a stretch, for others a compression, for still others the composition of a reflection and a stretch/compression. Some sites seem to allow for a vertical stretch of factor 1/2, but would you allow one of factor -3?
- What do you call the line in the middle of a sinusoidal? Medial axis, median line, mid-range, mean level (like mean sea level)...
Don't you think it is wild that there doesn't seem to be a least one word around for these things? I would be happy to hear any suggestions that you might have - maybe CLIPS will use your suggestion. How about the Isenegger-Clarke line? A compstretchion?
