Robert Winny sent me two questions: “Is there a specific title for someone who designs cardboard boxes? And why the spelling difference between program and programme?” Welcome to my life. Not just the random queries I receive, and the days spent fossicking answers, but also the likes of Robert’s email. A dozen land per week, my inbox a can of words, with topics as arbitrary as “What do you call a lover of lighthouses?” Or: “How long’s a jiffy?” Given the avalanche, you’d appreciate why I can’t reply to each question in person, though I do try to tackle each mystery, out of curiosity if not duty.
One-sixtieth of a second, being one tick of a computer’s system clock, is a jiffy’s duration, according to IT coders. While in the Astle house, a jiffy is half a sec, or roughly two shakes. As for a lighthouse lover? Try a beaconnoisseur.
Paper-shaper, a cubist, a cartonist, a cat-home architect, Credit: iStock Yet returning to Robert’s stumpers, let’s start with the box-maker. The sensible answer is a packaging engineer, said Bradley Farr, replying to my online plea. Visiting FEFCO (or Federation of Corrugated Board Manufacturers), I learnt more inside-the-box jargon, from FOL (Full Overlap) to PTB (Partial Telescope Box).
Next time you unpack an HSC (Half-Slotted Container), take a jiffy to admire its die-cut defence against “compression, impact, rupture and pilferage”. Among the less sensible answers, however, the web’s neologists made hay, proposi.
