I posted on this naming issue a while back..., but last night I couldn't find that post to jog anyone's memory.

I am not crazy about the name "twisted square," but this is the name I first heard (from Peter Francis at his first lecture in Northern California in 1979), for these beads. The generic name is "pentagon beads."

In contrast, the five-sided beads are generally called "Dutch pentagonal beads."

It's true the names are very close, and neither of them is distinctive. The former refers to the shape of the eight facets, each of which is five-sided. The latter to the over-all shape of the bead—it having five paddled longitudinal surfaces.

David is correct. Calling the five-sided wound bead a "prism" stretches the definition of prism beyond credibility. It is exactly like saying a bead is not "spherical" if it is not a perfect sphere, thereby demanding that we say the bead is "spheroidal." I suppose we can insist that people describe the five-sided Dutch beads as "prismoidal," but do we think anyone will follow that?

As I have said many times, the naming of beads is VERY problematic—because people will not understand names and will misuse them, or will apply the name to other beads; and names will and are so-misused to pump-up potential buyer-respect and to garner a higher price.

These are issues we face daily.

Jamey