I've seen "arm" but in other letters that refers to more perpendicular parts (e.g. /E, /F).
I've seen "shoulder" but in other letters that refers to a hump that continues down to the baseline (e.g. /n, /h)
I've seen "ear" which otherwise I think only is used with a binocular /g, but Van Gogh was still recognizable after he cut off his ear.
What do
you call it?
Comments
I tend to call it the beak (in the "f" too) although that could be confused for the last bit of it, versus the whole thing. Flag is decent.
Which is of course why it's OK to use ear for the "g". Related:
BTW, little-known fact: the expression "lend me your ear" was coined by Van Gogh. (Sorry.)
So for example it wouldn't be appropriate to say "teardrop terminal" for my leftmost example at all, and for the rightmost one saying "the teardrop terminal should be lighter" would only be referring to the blobby bit at the end, not the whole red part.
Consider the context.
If the sticky-outy bit being referred to is terminated by a soft or ball shape—a lobe, as it were—then “ear” is quite apropos, but otherwise, people will know what is meant by “arm” or “branch”.
It’s not as if the /r has other parts which might be mistaken for each other by imprecise naming.
And after all, none of the descriptions proposed so far is universal—they are all stumped by the ball and stick (e.g. in Renner’s original design of Futura).
I am still waiting for a response from Anatomy of a Typeface.