What Are The Oddest Automotive Words?
Words have meaning. But in an ever-evolving environment like the automobile that has a vast array of technically descriptive language, it can be hard to keep up with the meaning of words, especially as new ones emerge or are created through common use. Anyone who’s said “the PRNDL” while pronouncing it “perndle” and using it as a noun will understand. And that’s where the Hagerty Community comes into play—collectively, we have deep knowledge reserves of all things automotive. That includes words in the automotive lexicon that might be considered odd or completely unfamiliar, especially to an outsider.
With that, we want to know your choice for the oddest automotive word you’ve ever heard. I have mine, and it’s something I recently said at my favorite local car show when a handful of C4 Corvette ZR-1s joined the show, with their posteriors bathed in red light.
CHMSL (Center High Mount Stop Light)
![1990 Chevrolet Corvette ZR-1 ZR1](https://hagerty-media-prod.imgix.net/2023/02/Screenshot-2023-02-06-at-1.43.06-PM.png?auto=format%2Ccompress&fit=crop&h=326&ixlib=php-3.3.0&w=640)
I told everyone around me to look at the CHMSL (pronounced ch-im-sul) to quickly spot a C4 Corvette ZR-1, as a “regular” 1991-1996 vette has the same squared-off tail lights but with a skinny center light mounted between them in the bumper. Sure, there are plenty of other differences that loyalists can immediately spot, but that brake light perched atop the hatchback is the easiest tell.
One of my friends (whom I consider to be savvier with cars than myself in many metrics) had never heard the phrase CHMSL, instead only knowing it from the more common term of “third brake light”. Both are right, but one was the internal name for wonks that soak up inside terminology for the car business.
So now I kick the question back to you, esteemed Hagerty Community member: What are the oddest automotive words?
CHMSL is not a word. It is an acronym like HVAC for heat, vent and Air Conditioning. or CVT for really bad transmissions better known as constant velocity transmission.
Just as NOS is not NOS It is the abbreviation for Nitrous Oxide. It was till that Fast and Stupid movie came out.
Harmonic Balancer. Are we reaching for Harmony?
King PIn. Are we bowling or a Mobster?
Exhaust Donut. Can I get them at Dunkins?
Dog House. Your wife can’t put you in this one.
Escutcheon A radio cover plate if you can say it.
Banjo Fitting. Boy you got a pretty fitting. Twang!
Propeller shaft. For when you really are flying.
Pumpkin if that is what you call your rear end.
Turn Stalk. If you are watching someone.
Dashpot Not found on the dash
Opera Window. Not going to sing out of that one.
Continental Kit Even if you don’t own a Lincoln.
Wing Window And it will not fly.
Curb Feeler sounds so creepy
Zerk Fitting. Make up your own comment here.
Magneto and that is not a cool customer wheel.
Fender Skirt where you find the Curb Feeler.
Pitman Arm. Not really an appendage.,
For the Brits They have many of their own odd terms for Americans.
Choke Tube – British term for Venturi (carb barrel)
Crown Wheel – Ring Gear
Dynamo – Generator
Nave Plate – Hubcap
Boot Trunk
Bonnet Hood
Grudgeon Pin. Wrist Pin
Except CHSML is a word because acronyms are words. But don’t take my “word” for it:
“a word (such as NATO, radar, or laser) formed from the initial letter or letters of each of the successive parts or major parts of a compound term.”
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/acronym
My dad always said, “If I said it, it’s a word.” I never argued.
Where’s the Vowel? Sanjeev you must not be a Wheel of Fortune viewer. lol!
https://www.grammarly.com/blog/vowels/#:~:text=Unlike%20consonants%2C%20every%20word%20needs,a%20and%20the%20pronoun%20I.
When do you need a vowel?
Unlike consonants, every word needs at least one vowel. There are a small number of exceptions, which we explain below, but in general, this is the rule. In fact, the shortest words in the English language are one letter, and they’re both vowels: the article a and the pronoun I.
Just saying. Keep Vanna employed…..lol!
Hey I don’t make the rules, I just capitalize on them.
No pun intended lol. 😆
😀
I have always pronounced PRNDL as Prindle.
Me too. Even told that old PRNDL joke to someone who hadn’t heard it the other day. Apparently the whole group hadn’t heard it. I must be old.
Studebakers and Internationals had pin-dealers.
Old?! How about PNDLR? Boy, on the old Hydromatics, it was good for ‘rocking’ your car free when being stuck! Took some careful use of the ‘foot feed’ pedal, though!
Perndle in my crowd. Gets a little dicey when you’ve got a PRND2L, though.
I’ve always said ‘per-nan-del’.
Amen
This is actually a pet peeve of mine. CVT is not and acronym, it is an abbreviation. An acronym is a type of abbreviation that is pronounced as though it s a word. An acronym is an abbreviation, but and abbreviation is not always an acronym. GM is not an acronym but AUDI and FIAT are.
You tell ‘em! Try playing Scrabble with them!
Actually, CVT is an “Initialism”, not an abbreviation.
CVT = Continuously Variable Transmission
My comment was what it really was not what the letter stood for. Just some humor.
My buddy just lost one in a new car recently.
Was he looking for it in the trunk? Shouldn’t be lost. They stay in the same spot down there under the body, connected to the engine. 💀
Just some humor. 😉
You left out “Dog Leg.”
In both cars, and golf.
CHMSL is an initialization, not acronym as CHMSL is not a word like someone else said here.
NOS is New Old Stock, NOT NO2 (Nitrous Oxide).
At least some people say “chim-sel” so CHMSL is kind of borderline, but CVT is definitely not an acronym, no one I’m aware of calls it a “civit”.
Right! And NOS (as found on NO2 bottles) is for Nitrous Oxide Systems
Agreed – I never heard (or read) anyone call nitrous oxide “NOS”; that is “new old stock”, as you say. I generally hear (or read) it as just “nitrous”.
For everyone’s information NOS is the brand name for Holley’s Nitrous Oxide System. So that’s what people call it. When was the last time you used your “Channel Lock” pliers?
No2 is the chemical designation for nitrous oxide, and new old stock can appropriately be called NOS also.
But people to most everyone in the performance community refer to Nitrous Oxide as “NOS”
Here’s a link to the Holly website where you can see the brand name NOS which very much means nitrous oxide. https://www.holley.com/brands/nos/?srsltid=AfmBOop7X3fdTBFz3s5fP1EiQO2QAr6BFlysagG-UOSjZ5WXIpPpjlhd
The often curmudgeonly hyperv6 shows his humorous side! Absolutely hilarious.
And I will take a lot of credit for that.
Interesting word for radio cover plate. The Spanish word for listen is escution.
I think auto-correct got you. Escuchar means to listen in Spanish. There are no Spanish words that end in “tion.” Spanish word equivalents for English “tion” words would end in “ción,” like estación for station.
At one time I worked in a Pontiac parts department and the word escutcheon was used for any small cover usually inside the car.
Escutcheon is also used in plumbing, for a small cover that goes around a pipe coming out of the wall.
A continuously variable transmission (CVT) is an automated transmission that can change through a continuous range of gear ratios.
NOS is New Old Stock N2O is the Symbol (abbreviation0 for Nitrous Oxide.
CVT: Continuously Variable Transmission (not what you said)
CHMSL: Center High Mounted Stop LAMP
My dad’s college car at KS State in the depression was a 1917 Scripps-Booth almost-boat-tail roadster, and it’s choke was labelled ‘Starting Strangler’. No from Boston, of course.
When you strangle something, you choke it, I suppose; was it another Brit puzzler?
He died in 1958, and I always wished we could have shipped the car (or what was left of it) from KS to CA, but we were hard-up, and I was only twelve. A museum in Des Plaines IA eventually got it, and supposedly used another Ferro V-8 car to make one restored sporty car. They sold me back the original radiator shell, anyhow.
If you are going to call out Sajeev on CHMSL as an acronym, I’m going to have to call you out on calling CVT an acronym. It isn’t. It’s an initialism. 🙂 Nobody says “sivt” or however you would try to say that as a word. We just say “See Vee Tee”. 😁
Nice list. I’m glad you threw in Grudgeon Pin. That’s my favorite.
In my world gudgeon pin is an English term. Also use in Australia language. Another words that’s used his upper and lower end which it would be the crankshaft bearings and camshaft bearings.
“Delete” instead of “Remove” or other words related to the physical world. Delete is a linguistic function. We delete names or words. We do not delete parts from a car.
Then again, millions of people seem to think that verbs need to be qualified with a prepositions, adjectives, and adverbs. (“Exit Out” “Spoke Out”, “Switch Up”, et al)
Let’s not discuss “Would of”, “Could of”, or “Should of”.
Happy Wednesday!
You mean “would have”,”could have”, and “should have”.Heck, my phone suggested “would’ve” and the others as alternatives. Regarding ‘NOS’, blame the movies for the idea that ‘nozz’ is a real word ..
Oh Pass Through Window since you have a photo. Better than pass out window.
“Backlight” or “Backlite” for the rear glass.
How about car names that really do not make sense.
Ram. Dodge, Syclone GMC or Cyclone Mercury, Typhoon, Impact, Probe these sound like they are out to get you.
I always thought that “pinion” was a strange-sounding car term. Note that NOS also stands for New Old Stock – which in and of itself is kind of odd-sounding but makes perfect sense when you know what it refers to. Let’s not forget that Brits call the things “wings” that we call “fenders”. The “dashboard” in my car is so named because in horse-drawn carriages, there was a board up front to keep out the dash kicked up by the horse(s). Pretty weird to still call something that since it has next to no relationship to the original meaning.
Hypoid
After I was finished reading this article that was also the first thing that popped into my mind, “hypoid.” I remember as a young gearhead helping my high school buddy put a new clutch in his 68 Goat out in his gravel driveway with the car up on ramps. I put the trans on my chest and lifted it up to slide it into the bell housing and “hyoid” oil ran onto my T-shirt. Of course we all called it gear oil back in the day and we all know that it had a very unique smell. Long story short that shirt ended up in my friends garage can when we were finished with our task. I wasn’t going anywhere near my 69 Mach1 Cobra Jet smelling like that so I washed off my chest with a leaded gasoline soaked rag. It’s simply amazing to me that now that I’m in my 60’s I haven’t developed some incurable disease from all the toxins I exposed myself to in my youth!
As a card design veteran, there are a bunch of weird terms we use:
Tumblehome – The angle of side glass/pillars from the front of the vehicle.
Beltline – The bottom of the side glass
Buttress (Also called a flying buttress) Taken from architecture, it describes a thin panel extending from the greenhouse. Often used on older mid-engined designs but also on the Jaguar XJS.
Spoiler – Aerodynamic appendage on the rear of a vehicle. What is it spoiling, exactly?
Ducktail – Similar function to the above, usually on a Porsche 911. (See also Whale Tail)
Dead Cat Hole – The gap between the top of the tire and the fender. I’m pretty sure we had another term for this when I was a young designer but I can’t remember it now.
Shark Fin – The triangular area at the front of the front door glass. Often used to mount a side view mirror.
Bone Line – A softly-radiused edge that defines a break between two surfaces. Something like the top of a fender or fender flare but could also be a character line.
Hagerty published an article on auto design terms a while back:
https://www.hagerty.com/media/opinion/vellum-venom/vellum-venom-a-glossary-of-automotive-design-terms/
Car designer, not card designer… 😂
Could be a door panel designer.
The Brits call the door panel a door card.
Spoiler is spoiling aerodynamic lift
Tumblehome – Isn’t that a bouncy house for the kiddies. I’ll be here all week!
Tumblehome is a boating term which refers to the V shape at front rolling inward toward the transom where it’s wider at the chine than it is at the deck.
We called it the Libby Light…..
Spoiler is a seemingly weird term, but it literally spoils the clean airflow off the car’s tail en, forcing air upward to cause downforce at the back of the vehicle.
Dogleg – area in front of rear wheel shaped like, well, a dog’s leg. Strange that they picked a dog instead of any other animal.
Since you said automotive and not car… 5th wheel
Agreed. Long before I’d ever seen one on a pick-up type truck, I saw 5th wheels on semi truck tractors, many of which actually have 10 wheels before you even get to that one on the back of the frame.
Castellated Nut (King Ludwig), Cotter Pin, Woodruff Key (not wood, and not rough), Worm Gear (for worms on expedition), Panhard Rod (rendered compliant designs obsolete), Crush Washer (scrap appliance recycling), Speed Governor (may I introduce the Honorable Enzo, our Governor of Speed), Dampner Stiction, Whitworth Tap, Tap and Die (apparently, in some jurisdictions, tapping is a capital offense), Pilot Bushing (and our Copilot Thrust), Pilot Bore (until you get to know him), Oil Bath (elite spa service), Louvered Cowl (ventilated bovine-raptor mutation), Bell Crank (Victor Hugo’s eccentric chimer), Pitman Arms (always well developed), Diaphragm (typically overcomes stiction), Chin Splitter (the expected result of losing a castellated nut, retaining a pitman arm).
Outstanding!
Dash, actually the Instrument panel.
Fire Wall, actually the Dash. Where’s the fire?
Working at GM’s HVAC plant we were not allowed to call it that. The lawyers did not like implying that there is a potential for fire there. It is the front of dash or FOD
Dipstick-a term of endearment amongst car guys
Wing nut-same definition as above
Slick- something you don’t want to slide
Homologation
I was always intrigued by “spun bearing.” Apparently I don’t want one.
It’s a Harmonic Damper, not a balancer. It doesn’t balance anything.
Not to be picky, but some do.
“Stovebolt” given to Chevrolet 6 cylinder engines from 1929 to 1962 because the bolt heads looked like those used in wood stoves.
“Nail Head” given to 1953 to 1966 Buick engines because of the arrangement and size of the valves.