Admit it. Any time someone talks about the planet Uranus, you (or someone else) can't help but revert to being ten years old again and letting out a little snicker.
The same goes for terms like homo erectus and blue-footed boobies.
While the special jargon that scientists use usually makes them sound super-smart, sometimes it sounds downright dirty.
Just check out the list below for 15 more words that sound much more NSFW than they really are.
Formication. It may sound like a word for getting down and dirty, but this is actually a medical term for the sensation that small insects are crawling over your skin. Eek.
Fukalite. Calm down. Fukalite is a mineral composed mostly of calcium, oxygen, and silicon.
Cummingtonite. Not kidding, cummingtonite is a brownish mineral made mostly of iron and magnesium (see below for its chemical formula). It's named after Cummington, a town in Massachusetts.
Schist. Nope, not a curse word. It's actually a common type of metamorphic rock that can be split easily into sheets.
Piloerection. Get your mind out of the gutter. This is the scientific word for when your hair stands on end.
Angina. This is not a body part. It's chest pain caused by reduced blood flow to the heart.
Mastication. This is an activity involving your body, yes, but it's totally PG. It's chewing, the first step in digestion.
Turdus maximus. Completely unrelated to a giant piece of you-know-what, this is the species name for the Tibetan blackbird, a member of the thrush family Turdidae that is found in the Himalayas.
Galactic bulge. You might hear an astronomer use this word, but not in the bedroom -- a galactic bulge is the center of a galaxy made of mostly older stars. The Milky Way's core is made of 10,000 stars, and last year, scientists discovered it is shaped like a peanut.
Sea puss. Nothing body-related, a sea puss is a strong seaward current, riptide or undertow.
Coccyx. We've all got one of these! Commonly referred to as the tailbone, the coccyx is the bony structure at the bottom of your spine.
Albedo. It might sound like another word for your sex drive, but albedo is actually a measure of the reflectivity of Earth's surface -- the amount of solar energy reflected from the Earth's surface back into space.
Uvula. So this is a body part, but it's nothing risqué. The uvula is that strange-looking dangly thing in the back of your mouth. From lubricating the throat with saliva to triggering the gag reflex to assisting with speech, scientists have long debated its true function.
Stimulated Emission. Get your mind off biology and think chemistry and physics. This is a process that occurs when a photon interacts with an atom's electron and causes it to drop to a lower energy level, which then releases energy in the form of another photon.
Arsole. Arsole is an arsenic-based organic compound. Its molecules are ring-shaped.
The same goes for terms like homo erectus and blue-footed boobies.
While the special jargon that scientists use usually makes them sound super-smart, sometimes it sounds downright dirty.
Just check out the list below for 15 more words that sound much more NSFW than they really are.
Formication. It may sound like a word for getting down and dirty, but this is actually a medical term for the sensation that small insects are crawling over your skin. Eek.
Fukalite. Calm down. Fukalite is a mineral composed mostly of calcium, oxygen, and silicon.
Cummingtonite. Not kidding, cummingtonite is a brownish mineral made mostly of iron and magnesium (see below for its chemical formula). It's named after Cummington, a town in Massachusetts.
Schist. Nope, not a curse word. It's actually a common type of metamorphic rock that can be split easily into sheets.
Piloerection. Get your mind out of the gutter. This is the scientific word for when your hair stands on end.
Angina. This is not a body part. It's chest pain caused by reduced blood flow to the heart.
Mastication. This is an activity involving your body, yes, but it's totally PG. It's chewing, the first step in digestion.
Turdus maximus. Completely unrelated to a giant piece of you-know-what, this is the species name for the Tibetan blackbird, a member of the thrush family Turdidae that is found in the Himalayas.
Galactic bulge. You might hear an astronomer use this word, but not in the bedroom -- a galactic bulge is the center of a galaxy made of mostly older stars. The Milky Way's core is made of 10,000 stars, and last year, scientists discovered it is shaped like a peanut.
Sea puss. Nothing body-related, a sea puss is a strong seaward current, riptide or undertow.
Coccyx. We've all got one of these! Commonly referred to as the tailbone, the coccyx is the bony structure at the bottom of your spine.
Albedo. It might sound like another word for your sex drive, but albedo is actually a measure of the reflectivity of Earth's surface -- the amount of solar energy reflected from the Earth's surface back into space.
Uvula. So this is a body part, but it's nothing risqué. The uvula is that strange-looking dangly thing in the back of your mouth. From lubricating the throat with saliva to triggering the gag reflex to assisting with speech, scientists have long debated its true function.
Stimulated Emission. Get your mind off biology and think chemistry and physics. This is a process that occurs when a photon interacts with an atom's electron and causes it to drop to a lower energy level, which then releases energy in the form of another photon.
Arsole. Arsole is an arsenic-based organic compound. Its molecules are ring-shaped.
No comments:
Post a Comment