OneGuyFromBarlick

I've sorted the tennis now - and remember there is also 'flint knapping' which seems to have no connection at all.

I've sorted the tennis now - and remember there is also 'flint knapping' which seems to have no connection at all.

I've also remembered that a mate of mine from the dogs days used to speak of 'there was this old napper' . I took it to be a reference to the racing term 'nap' meaning first choice selection. I now think he might have been meaning 'knapper'.

They're a tangled web, words aren't they?

It's also common for a horse to 'nap' meaning to shy away from.

Don't remind me about shy horses - I've done with them all for now. I might explain why one day.

No end to it - the way the cloth lies on a snooker table. - and of course forty winks.

Knapsack comes from the German knappen meaning to bite, also related to snap or piece....all words used for your packed lunch!

You two have been having fun haven't you! It took me back to 'haver' the Old English name for oats.
Yes I kept dipping into the tennis and watched the final set David. I didn't feel sorry for Djokovic, I just thought of the number of times he had put someone in the losing seat. If you live by the sword there's a good chance you will die by it.....

Stanley wrote: ↑17 Jul 2023, 02:15 You two have been having fun haven't you! It took me back to 'haver' the Old English name for oats.

Which isn't far from the Latin name for oats, Avena.

The word that came to mind this morning is 'sile'. In the local farming community this was the name given to the strainer that was the first process that freshly milked milk went through. It transferred from that to a description of heavy 'stair rod' rain.
Here's what I found when I went for a furtle....
Noun (1) Middle English, perhaps from Old English sȳl pillar, column; akin to Old High German sūl pillar, Old Norse sūl, sūla, Gothic sauls. Middle English silen, of Scandinavian origin; akin to Swedish sila to strain, sil strainer, Norwegian sile to strain, sil strainer. Noun (2) Middle English, of Scandinavian origin; akin to Swedish & Norwegian sil strainer.
Noun of Scandinavian origin; akin to Old Norse sīld herring.
I also found a Scottish meaning..... Sile = a beam.

Not heard of sile.

I came across this tonight - a lot better than 'chocolate teapot' which I could never work out, and must now replace 'ash tray on a motor bike' as my favourite,

"it will be as much use as mudflaps on a tortoise".

But David, a chocolate teapot would melt as soon as boiling water was poured in! Surely a good reason for the phrase.
I always liked chocolate fire screen as well.....

We're all familiar with American soldiers having `rest and recreation' (R&R) but yesterday I saw it written as `soldiers recreating'.

So I said to the nurse after reading her name badge - "that's an interesting word 'phlebotomist' "

"Yes" she repied - "but when I worked at Addenbrookes they used to call me a 'venipuncturist' "

"I've never heard of that" says I, but the clue is surely in the name. I'll check it out and later put it on a small but select website that I use. I'll bring it to a wider audience. Maybe to as many as eight. They will be interested in that".

Now I find there is a difference, and I know what it is. I bet Ian does too.

Tripps wrote: ↑19 Jul 2023, 15:14 Now I find there is a difference, and I know what it is. I bet Ian does too.

Indeed I do. I have had good ones and the odd bad one, the best hardly leave a mark on you. They must take a pride in their work, much like doing nice solder joints that no one ever sees.

I had to resort to Google but now I know the difference as well. I doubt if it will change my life but as David says, very interesting!

The phlebotomy gang are the bloodsuckers the latter are the ones that install the two way valves.

I came across the word "imbricated" in an article about Rishi Sunak's mother in law - like you do. . .

"Vegetarianism as practiced in India is imbricated in the caste order."


I might have thought they meant implicated, but this didn't seem to be a site where that mistake would occur, so I investigated.

What does imbricated with mean?
imbricated; imbricating. transitive verb. : overlap. especially : to overlap like roof tiles.

They've reached the stage of roof tiles on next door's renovation - I bet the roofers don't know they are about to do a bit of imbricating - and they don't look likely to be impressed by my wide vocabulary - so I'm not going to be the one to tell them.

Imbricated is also used in biology to describe scales that are overlapped, whether on a plant or animal. In geology it refers to overlapping rock slices. When I looked to check the geology meaning on the Web I got this description - they could have just used the last sentence!
An imbricate structure consists of a series of overlapping rock slices separated by steeply inclined subparallel reverse faults and bounded above and below by major low-angle thrust surfaces. The arrangement is somewhat similar to a set of books leaning against one another on an incompletely filled shelf.

Oneguy is wonderful! You live and learn, I've never seen the word before but now I am equipped to go out again into the world!

I came across a word that I have never seen before.... 'Mulesing'. HERE'S what I found when I Googled it. You may find there is more information than you need..... I'm glad it isn't practised in this country!

Once again MJ Trow has me delving into the dictionary. His Christopher Marlowe novels are full of interesting words. In this case it was a reference to one of the men `warming his buskins by the fire'.

Are you sure it's not from Round The Horne with Kenneth Williams?

Also said to be thick soled boots worn by Athenian actors to gain height but how the hell the lexicographers know that beats me!

I used a word yesterday that may not be familiar to many. 'Mowstead' Used mainly in Yorkshire and sometimes spelt 'mewstead', it is the space inside a barn set aside for stacking hay for winter feed.

I remembered later that my first boss on the farm in Warwickshire, Lionel Gleed, told me that hay knives came in handy for boring into hay stacks that were overheating because of high moisture content. He said that it was dangerous work as they could burst into flame when the air got to them.....
He also mentioned a horse driven machine that was used but I have never come across that.

A word crossed my mind yesterday that I haven't heard for a long time. If a child was crying we said they were 'skriking'.
I looked the etymology up and found this:- From Old Norse skrikja, "to scream" or Old English scric, literally "bird with a shrill call," referring to a thrush, possibly imitative of its call. Attested from c 1573.
Has anyone else come across it? Was it a northern usage?