>>>intersection - junction
>>
>>Intersection is not PC anymore. It's interchange now. When was the last person executed for uttering "crossroad" in public?
>
>Actually, "intersection" is where two streets meet. "Interchange" is where two highways meet.

So the language can become quite granular in some areas of interest. There are names for all kinds of roads, streets, crossings, types of cars, types of glasses, bottles and flatware, but there are so many words missing in other areas - "uncle" covers at least three relatives which have separate names in other languages; "cherry" covers two species of fruit, "remember" covers all of "memorize", "recall", "reminisce" and "forget not", not to mention multiple meanings of "break", "range", "post", "point", "pass", "mind" etc, which all have meanings for which there are no separate words in English.

I figure someone could get a PhD by just figuring what causes this sparsity in some areas and abundance in others.