You're listening to Away With Words, the show about language and how we use it.

I'm Grant Barrett.

And I'm Martha Barnett. I came across the most lovely term the other day, door dwell. Door dwell. Can you guess what that is? Door dwell? It's when you don't want to leave and you're just hanging around saying goodbye without going back to your car. That's kind of nice, right? It's like doorknob hanging, right? but that's not what Doordwell is. It's a D-O-O-R?

Yes, D-O-R. without going back to your car? That's kind of nice, right? So we're like doorknob hanging, right? But that's

not what doord well is. It's a D-O-O-O-R? Yes, D-O-O-R. Second word is D-W-E-L-L, and it's a trade jargon term. Oh, I don't know it. What is it? It is the time it takes the elevator doors to close once you've boarded once the last person gets on there. That makes a lot of sense because in

retail they it takes the elevator doors to close once you've boarded. Once the last person gets on there.

That makes a lot of sense because in retail they talk about dwell times, in aisles and in registers and in different spaces.

Dwell time is something you take into account as an architect.

Okay, yeah, dwell.

Isn't that interesting?

I've always loved the word dwell. And then to find door dwell, which is usually two to four seconds. And so of course I've been reading about elevator jargon, which has fascinated me. And the fact that a lot of building managers disabled the closed door button.

Why? You know, the risk of lawsuits. Oh, I see.

Because you can make it close on someone's arm?

Yeah, yeah. So they don't actually work, supposedly.

And hoistway is another one.

You can probably guess what hoistway is.

That's the tall column of space that the elevator occupies?

Yeah, the elevator shaft is called the hoist way.

And my other favorite term from elevator language is terminal landing.

Oh, was that when the cable is cut and it falls unexpectedly?

No, no, no, it's the top and bottom elevator landing area.

Oh, the terminus, right.

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