Weird Wacky Words
We all know that the English language can sometimes be confusing, but it can also be amusing.
The following words are real words, used in the construction industry, that have caused us to ask, "just what does that word mean anyway?" or "if someone wasn't familiar with the construction industry, what might they think?!"
Sexfoil
We all know the most common definition of the word “sex,” and if we add that to the first definition of foil, it adds up to a fairly common and
frustrating experience. The first definition for “foil” is “to prevent the success of; frustrate, balk,” you see where that could be heading...
Sexfoil: the prevention of sex or perhaps, sexually frustrated?
The real definition: A six-lobed circle or arch formed by cusping. 
Cusping? A cusp is a point or pointed end, ok we are not going there. However, cusp in architectural terms is “The point of intersection of two ornamental arcs or curves, such as the inner points of a trefoil,”…or sexfoil.
Pilaster
If you have a few too many scotches and water (with a little more scotch than water) you may become Pi-Lastered!
However, the real definition is not as much fun; it is a rectangular support that resembles a flat column, projecting only slightly from a wall as an oramental motif. It includes a base, a shaft and a capital.
Balustrade
Kids and pets seem to be able to get themselves into some very interesting situations, such as stuck between two balusters. Two what?
Most of us call them railings, but if you want to get fancy, they are balustrades, or a row of repeating balusters, small posts that support the upper rail of a railing.
So, next time you find a kid or pet in a sticky situation, say, “get your head out of the balustrade!”
Old School: Kids and pets got stuck or fell through often, especially in older homes.
New School: Most areas now require that a 4-inch ball not be able to pass through the widest opening between balusters.
Coffer (aka Caisson)
It makes sense that this feature is often found in buildings in Vegas, since a coffer may be referred to as a strongbox for holding valuables, like cash.
However, in architectural terms, a coffer is a sunken panel in a ceiling, dome, soffit, or vault. 
Who knows, maybe that is where they hide the house take?
Parapet
This word is familiar to those with architectural knowledge, however we sometimes don’t realize how odd/funny common words are to those who don’t know what they mean.
Here are some hilarious made-up definitions for parapet:
- The technique one employs to pet a parrot to avoid getting bitten.
- What Noah said while he was loading the arc.
A knock-off of a “chia pet.”- Something that can cut tomatoes and peel onions at the same time.
- A ghost pet… most commonly a dog, cat, or goldfish.
- Short for “Persian carpet.”
- A parrot that has to use a wheelchair.
- Lastly, but not least, shortened form of the phrase “pair of pets” that refers to our company’s mascots… our two beagles, Izzy and Wilbee.
Of course, we should tell you what the real definition is! A parapet is a wall-like barrier at the edge of a roof, balcony, etc. It can serve many purposes… examples are preventing people from falling over the edge, to hide unsightly mechanical equipment, or to protect defenders (which was much more common for castles in medieval days).
Scupper
Scupper definitions related through two short dramatic adaptations:
Adaptation One:
The scene unfolds: An old sea-hand, with twenty missing teeth, points off the starboard bow and addresses his captain, “Scupper, thar be a whale fit fer a king!”
Adaptation Two:
The scene: A study group of students are sitting around a table.
“I don’t know what scupper means.”
“Me, either.”
“Maybe it has something to do with scraping stuff? Or cupping something?”
“No, no… you dorks. It comes from the ancient roman word skuppire, meaning ‘to spit!’ Scuppers are used to provide an opening through parapet walls on flat and built-up roofs to allow drainage of excess water… in essence, spitting water out through the wall. Duh!”
“OH! Why didn’t you say so in the first place. Sheesh!”
Nogging
Interestingly, when checking a project to the sound of Christmas carols, one of the reviewers piped up and inquired inquisitively, “Anybody know what nogging is?” Of course, due to the season, the immediate response was “sitting and relaxing while consuming copious quantities of a beverage made with milk, cream, sugar, beaten eggs, cinnamon, and nutmeg that is often laced with rum, brandy, and/or whisky.” For a split second, the room fell silent with the exception of “silent night, holy night…” booming from the radio. The next second, the room erupted with laughter. “You mean, nogging is the act of drinking egg nog?!” After the silliness subsided, it turns out that no one really knew what it meant. So… off to dictionary.com we went.
Huddled around the computer, we found that the American Heritage Dictionary defines nogging as the brickwork used to fill in the open spaces in a wall between studs or other framing members. Doesn’t sound nearly as fun as the definition that we made up… but maybe construction workers install nogging during Christmas while drinking egg nog. Well… we said “maybe.”
Skiffling
We occasionally come across words we have never seen before while performing our reviews. When this happens, we are uncertain whether the word is a typo or a “real” word. So, any time this occurs, the suspect word has to be looked up to confirm its authenticity… we don’t want to look silly by saying a real word is a typo or misspelled.
So when we came upon “skiffling,” our hyper alert investigative mode kicked in. Hmmm… mysterious word… is it close to sniffling? Or how about a skiff (a boat)? None, of course, really apply to the world of construction. Well, we hoped that “sniffling” wasn’t a common occurrence anyway!
According to Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, skiffling is a term used in the quarrying business that means, “Rough dressing by knocking off knobs or projections; knobbing.”
Ah, so skiffling is knobbing. This made us laugh, too… since if we had just seen knobbing, we wouldn’t have known what was meant, either. In our business, we learn something new everyday!
Sex Bolt
When we first saw the word "sex bolt" in one of our review projects, we thought that it might be a typo… was a hex bolt intended? When one of the team members wanted to Google it to see if it was a legitimate construction term, we were horrified, “You can’t do a search on a phrase with the word sex on a company computer, especially on the internet where cookies and spyware keeps track of that kind of stuff! Who knows what sort of sex-related sp
am and pop-ups we’ll get!”
So he held off and Googled it from his home computer that evening and reported his findings to us the next day. Lo and behold, it was a real term!! It refers to the type of bolt that is commonly used to pin construction drawings together… where the two tubular halves screw into each other, also called a binding post. By the way, we much prefer the sex bolt method to pinning drawings over the old method called “staple-to-death.”
Vomitorium
While reviewing a stadium, we ran across references to a vomitorium. Though some people tend to over do it while watching the game, we were hoping that a vomitorium didn't have anything to do with actual vomit!
After a little research, we found that a vomitorium (plural: vomitoria) is a passage situated below or behind a tier of seats in an amphitheater, theatre, stadium, etc., through which actors, gladiators, athletes, etc. can access the play area, and leave at the end of a performance or game.
Pig
For a structure in Dubai that we reviewed, pigs were used for cleaning pipelines, not consuming slops! However, if you are unfamiliar with pig cleaning, reading the specs regarding pig requirements (4000 pounds!), storage (by the butt end), and pig detectors and pig tracking equipment is pretty funny.
A quick look on the internet brings up more comical phrases related to the alive snorting type pig: pig launching and receiving, the art of pigging, dealing with a “stuck” pig, specialist pigging experts, etc. So over all, pigs are just funny.
Floor Tundish
While reviewing a set of drawings that was prepared by a firm in the United Kingdom, we ran across items called floor tundishes.
It turns out that a tundish has two main definitions. The first definition of tundish is “a receptacle used in metal foundries to hold molten metal” and the second definition is “a funnel.” Since we were not reviewing drawings for a metal foundry and the tundish was drawn on the floor with piping leading away from it, we assumed the second definition was the one to use!
Ravel vs. Unravel
One afternoon, while checking a project, one of the reviewers hollered out, "Does anyone know what ravel means?" As usual, someone had an opinion and replied, "to separate or disentangle, to take apart or undo."
That got everyone's attention, and the question arose, "Isn't that the meaning of unravel? Isn't ravel different than unravel?" After 10 minutes of debate and discussion, we resorted to looking it up in Webster's dictionary. And guess what we found out? That "ravel" means "to unravel"!!! Of course, that caused an uproar!
We had to lookup the prefix "un-" which meant what everyone thought it meant, a prefix meaning "not." Hmmmm... not satisfied now with 
Webster's definition, we headed for the Internet (www.dictionary.com) and found that it agreed with Webster! This has become our favorite "trick" question for family and friends... it's great at parties, try it.
Have you run across some interesting construction terms? Tell us about them. Please email your amusing discoveries to contributions@blueprintbluepers.com.