Didn't know how to word the question. Take the command /sdc1 being a partition on a harddrive thats plugged in but unmounted. What would the proper word for /sda1 be? a mount point? a hard point? something else?

I think it should be /dev/sdc1.
If so, it denotes the first primary partition on your third harddisk.

Explanation:
/dev/ contains all your devices
/dev/sda is your first hard disk (/dev/sdb would be your second and so on ...)
/dev/sda1 is the first primary partition on it (/dev/sda2 the second ...)

If you want to know more details, search the web for the keywords
A mount point is an empty directory within your filesystem, e.g /media/my_disk.
You can create it using
and then mount your device using
On most linux systems, you need to be logged in as the root user to do that.

If you want to make it permanent, search the web for

right, I know how to do it. I'm just wondering what to call /dev/sdc1, since it isn't technically a mount point.

/dev/sdc1 is a block-special device file; basically a file containing the entire raw contents of the hard disk.

/mnt/external.hd is just a directory when it's unmounted; you'll sometimes hear the term "folder" but that's more of a Windows term. You could also call it a mount-point since it's either defined as a point for mounting in fstab, or else a place where you intend to mount something.

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device file

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See

If the partition is coming on same hard disk it means it would be either sda1 , then sda2 or sda3
if the partition is on another hard disk then it would like for 1st partition it will be sdb1 then for 2nd sdb2 & for 3rd it would be sdb3.


for every new hard disk you alphabetical character will increased as sd[a-z].
for every new partition on same hard disk your last numerical charter will increased as sda[1-6].
use this in command to know your disk device .

demesg|grep -i scsi