I used to use parallelepiped in USA English until I retired in 1990,
although I too sometimes used the word box for a rectangular one. I
observed that the word parallelepiped had a humorous effect on many
students, which encouraged me to use it even when something else would do.
I wish now that I'd thought of telling students that if they found the word
parallelepiped not to their liking, they could use parallelepipedon instead.
Gordon Fisher gfisher@shentel.net