Parliament and procedure

The twelfth entry is a votação nominal, and the Portuguese name says what the procedure produces: every name written down. English named the same thing after what the members have to do with their bodies. In the Commons the chair puts the question and the benches answer aloud, « aye » or « no ». If anybody challenges the result, the House « divides »: the doors are locked after eight minutes and the members walk out through one of two corridors — « the aye lobby » on one side, « the no lobby » on the other — where tellers count them as they pass. The noun for that is « a division », and it is the ordinary word for a vote: « the division on the second reading », « to force a division », « the division list » that prints who went which way. Nothing in the word mentions names, and yet the names are the by-product, because nobody can be counted in a lobby without being listed in it. So the plain rendering of a votação nominal is « a division ». « A nominal vote » means nothing in English.