When you dive into the world of collecting, it doesn’t take you long before you run across a word or two that you never heard before. Before you know it, you’ll have a broad vocabulary at your disposal.

I dove head first into collecting at the age of eight, and after almost 30 years in the business—I’ve heard some interesting ones. Here’s a few of them:

Abattant—this is a French term for a “drop lid” or a “fall front” piece of furniture. More often than not, you’ll see this on a secretary desk.

Burl—this is a curly-grained wood surface (or even a veneer) that is cut from an irregular growth of a tree. This could come from a portion of the roots of the tree, and it is very common in walnut wood.

Partner’s desk—this is a desk that’s large enough to seat two people facing each other. A lawyer’s office could have used one of these, and this desk has working drawers on both sides.

There are plenty of words like these, which ones have you run across?