Re: Voids
& nubs
Posted by ESC on October 29, 2002 In Reply to: Partial answer posted by Word
Camel on October 29, 2002
: : I was asked the other day whether
there were actual words in existence for (and I quote) "the innie and outie bits"
of jigsaw puzzle pieces. Courtesy of the most recent great act of democracy in
the US, I toyed with the idea of "chads", but that is of course wrong. Do these
words exist?
: Apparently there are lots of different ways of cutting the curves
of a jigsaw puzzle, and part of the art of cutting a puzzle is to place the curves
so that they don't detract from the design of the picture. Not all styles of cutting
create pieces that lock together. Some just fit together, smooth edge to smooth
edge.
: The only word I could find that specifically referred to the shape
of a piece is the word, figural. "A Figural is a single jigsaw puzzle piece or
a small group of jigsaw puzzle pieces within a full jigsaw puzzle that resembles
an object of some kind, in the form of a silhouette." Figurals were one of the
thinks that turned puzzles from a childrens' game to a serious adult pastime around
the turn of the century. interlocking pieces were also a huge innovation. Prior
to their invention, pictures were cut along colour lines without interlocking
pieces. A simple sneeze could ruin hours of work.
: For those interested I
am enclosing a link to the site where I found all this information. I emailed
the artist - the puzzler? to find out if he knows the whole answer.
: Word Camel
Ta
da!!
VOID - "in jigsaw puzzles, the space into which the rounded projection
("nub") is placed to form a "lock" 'When he told the group that a 'void' is a
'female' jigsaw piece, many people regarded his remark as sexist, even though
he didn't mean it to be." From "Weird Words" by Irwin M. Berent and Rod L. Evans
(Berkley Books, New York, 1995)
- Kudos! Word Camel 10/29/02
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