I'm a die-hard DIYer. I hire out drywall and blueboard/skimcoat work. Two guys who do that work everyday can do in a 6-hour day and ~$800 what it would take me two weeks and $300 in materials and their job looks 4x better than mine.
For us non-english speakers - "sheetrock" == drywall.
I find I can do most such works better than (average) professionals, but it takes a lot of time to learn, prepare, execute (+ sometimes re-execute) and clean. It all depends on when you are satisfied with the result.
I have also heard it as "gypsum wallboard", which is certainly most descriptive.
I'm not certain whether the water-resistant, mold-resistant variety typically hung behind tiles in bathrooms is ever referred to as "wetwall" or if they still call it "drywall".
Nor am I aware of whether anyone calls the foil-backed, glass-reinforced, fire-resistant variety "firewall" instead of "drywall".
I wouldn't be surprised if obsolete and inapplicable names still attach to items with the same function. If we ever move to polyethylene film panels sandwiched with phase-change material for our walls, it might still be called "plasterboard" somewhere.
it is called dry wall because it is installed while already dry. Unlike the old technique of lath and plaster where you build up the wall with multiple layers of wet plaster https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lath_and_plaster
I used to work for a home theater company. We were regularly working on newer mansion in the suburbs. If you ever want to see some dudes that work faster than fast, go hang out with a drywall crew.
I remember showing up on a site, and the drywall guys had just started carting in a ton of drywall. By the time we left in the afternoon, they had cut, hung, taped and mudded over 3,000 sq feet of home, it was insane.
