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#66229 04/18/02 04:28 PM
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musick Offline OP
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The originals were, as was claimed by The History Channel, the British "sappers" of WWII. Where did 'sapper' come from?


#66230 04/18/02 05:16 PM
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Where did 'sapper' come from?

Good question. I'm glad you asked that.


#66231 04/18/02 05:19 PM
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aw, faldage, I wanted to take it. Perhaps our french-speakers (bel?) could add a special perspective?


#66232 04/18/02 06:34 PM
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Dear Faldage: I also am glad he asked, but have taken the trouble to find out. The business of undermining city walls in a siege is very ancient - Remember Jericho? De trumpet blow, and de walls came a rumblin' down. Here is a URL with a lot of interesting information:

http://www.clanntartan.org/articles/sappers.html


#66233 04/18/02 06:53 PM
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taken the trouble to find out

I knew I could count on you, Dr. Bill. Thanks.


#66234 04/18/02 10:26 PM
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from the link: Although the Italian word zappa had long been used to denote a garden hoe

So Frank was a garden hoe? And what's more...did he know that?

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#66235 04/18/02 10:32 PM
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Dear WO'N: I hope that doesn't make his daughters hoers.


#66236 04/18/02 10:32 PM
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Yet, sap in its other incarnations is, according to Webster's Unabridged 1913, of uncertain origin. Any thing else in the OED?


Sap \Sap\, n. [AS. s[ae]p; akin to OHG. saf, G. saft, Icel.
safi; of uncertain origin; possibly akin to L. sapere to
taste, to be wise, sapa must or new wine boiled thick. Cf.
Sapid, Sapient.]
1. The juice of plants of any kind, especially the ascending
and descending juices or circulating fluid essential to
nutrition.

Note: The ascending is the crude sap, the assimilation of
which takes place in the leaves, when it becomes the
elaborated sap suited to the growth of the plant.

2. The sapwood, or alburnum, of a tree.

3. A simpleton; a saphead; a milksop. [Slang]



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#66237 04/19/02 12:01 AM
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musick Offline OP
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Thanks for clarifying the question, W'ON. No, really!


#66238 04/19/02 12:36 AM
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Dear WO'N: I hope that doesn't make his daughters hoers.

Or hoers d'oeuvres!


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