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#44512 10/13/01 06:54 PM
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When my children were little, their maternal grandfather, an engineer, could not resist taking their new toys apart on Christmas Day to see how they worked. While the children resisted this endeavour then, some of it apparently rubbed off on them, as they are prone, as young adults, to "mess" with any new item: flipping switches, turning knobs, removing hatch covers and generally toying around with the novel object. My son and heir coined a neologism to describe this behaviour; he says he is "tinkersome" ... and so he is.




#44513 10/13/01 07:20 PM
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Welcome back, Father Steve. Tinkersome sounds enough like a real word that I needed to look it up and make sure. It wasn't there, but there was, besides tinker, tinker's damn, and tinkertoy.



#44514 10/13/01 10:33 PM
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tinker's damn
In my understanding, it is a tinker's dam, not damn. Meaning a small piece of material placed to dam the flow of liquid (melted) solder, confining the liquied to place desired. For this purpose one would use a disposable, insignificant bit of material, a useless bit of no other worth; hence, "not worth a tinker's dam".


#44515 10/13/01 10:47 PM
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Gosh, the things we learn when wordsmiths tinker with words! Now, who's gonna do potters and coopers and fletchers? Oh, yeah - the ape with clay: Hairy Potter


#44516 10/14/01 02:36 AM
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Hi, Father Steve! [ear-to-ear grin e]
What a lovely word! It has me trying to think of others.
How about saying, for people who like to do a myriad of small tasks, that they are puttersome? And that butterflies are fluttersome...hmm, I think I've had too much from that cask.


#44517 10/14/01 03:20 AM
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Re: In my understanding, it is a tinker's dam, not damn. Meaning a small piece of material placed to dam the flow of liquid (melted) solder, confining the liquied to place desired. For this purpose one would use a disposable, insignificant bit of material, a useless bit of no other worth; hence, "not worth a tinker's dam".

a tinker, of course being the person who mended the pots and pails, usually an ititerant worker. there is a bawdy ballard about they hansome young tinker who hammers away in m'lady's chamber.. setting thing right..

but the word tinker does mean to take apart, and put back together and make minor repairs.. a jack of all trades..



#44518 10/14/01 03:22 AM
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Your son's maternal grandfather was an engineer so he wanted to see how things worked, Father Steve. Or maybe he just wanted to see if he could put them back together again ... in which case he is more than "Tinkersome". He's an "afixionado".


#44519 10/14/01 04:47 AM
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In my understanding, it is a tinker's dam, not damn.
yeahrt, but.
http://wordsmith.org/board/showflat.pl?Cat=&Board=words&Number=2426


#44520 10/14/01 05:13 AM
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"afixionado": cool, Plu! And, congrats on the .


#44521 10/14/01 01:56 PM
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yeahrt, but.

yeahbut®

talkin' of sue'em, I got prior (y)art registration in this case!


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