Maius Intra Qua Extra

Now, see, at least the French terms have a system. It's actually useful for one person to say to the other (in roughly-translated English), "White golf club, hook, hook, black golf club", though it's far more useful to the musician to say "half-bar, eighth-bar, eight-bar, quarter-bar".

I thought that your list of words actually shed some light on this, as you use the term "croche" and the British use "crotchet", but then I realized they are two different things - eighth notes for the French but quarter notes for the British. Sigh.