appellation

appellation - noun - the word by which a particular person or thing is called and known; name; title; designation; the act of naming


Why is the name of the color blue? And how is it so universally understood? My son, recently asked (again) why certain things are named the way they are. Of course, he picked the simple and universal ones. Those are always the hardest to answer, if they can indeed be answered.

lacuna

lacuna - n - A gap or missing part, as in a manuscript, series, or logical argument; hiatus.

A particularly frustrating example of lacunae is the Annals of Tacitus (A.D 55-117), which has large gaps, especially in his lives of Augustus, Tiberius, and Caligula. It's enough to make stones weep and turnips bleed.