OOLLY IS WOOTZ !!


A. an affectionate nickname for uilleann pipes
--- contributed by etaoin

B. a city in Tamil Nadu, India. (contraction of Tamil Ullagamandalam)
---contributed by sjmaxq

C. made of, or having the appearance of, small, smooth, regular sized granules
--- contributed by RhubarbCommando
--- chosen by AnnaS, belMarduk, Bingley, etaoin, Fiberbabe, shanks

D. a quack remedy for syphilis popular in the early 18th entury
--- contributed by Bingley
--- chosen by Jackie

E. the viscous, gelatinous state of meat in final decomposition
--- contributed by belMarduk

F. a small cavity or shallow hole in an ironwood tree from which decay may spread - a perpetual concern for foresters of this hard, durable wood
--- contributed by shanks
--- chosen by TEd Remington

G. the small piece of albuminous matter attached to the yolk of an egg
--- contributed by Faldage

H. a lump or loop of iron, as wootz, when taken as a pasty mass from the crucible [India]
---the Real McCoy; see Webster’s New International Dictionary of the English Language, Second Edition (a.k.a. NI2),1943; p. 1704 (but not in NI3, as it happens)
--- chosen by dxb, bonzaialsatian, RhubarbCommando, sjmaxq

I. a small opening, either natural or man-made so that it is just big enough to see through with one eye
--- contributed by Jackie
--- chosen by Glinda, musick

J. to appear in disguise: incognito
--- contributed by musick

K. an aggregate formed of egg-shaped stones originally arising as igneous inclusions in bituminous shale
--- contributed by dxb
--- chosen by Capfka, consuelo

L. cautious; gentle [Sc.]
--- contributed by tswum
--- chosen by faldage, tsuwm

M. descriptive of a polar bear's pelt
--- contributed by AnnaStrophic
                                         

Afternotes:

OOLLY IS WOOTZ !!

Congratulations to dxb, bonzaialsatian, RhubarbCommando, sjmaxq, who through knowledge, experience, logic, luck, or some combination thereof chose the correct answer.

It looks as if many people (red and blue) picked up on the oö- or “eggs or egg-sized granules” aspect of oolly, especially C, the most-chosen answer, and K which is pretty close to real "oölite", the definition which precedes oolly in NI2 and is all that’s left of it in NI3. My suspicion is that oolly was originally made from oölite. Any confirmation from the linguists among us?

Other attractors for entries appear to have been its evocation of “oily” and "ooze.”

From sjmaxq: “I saw your word, and was immediately reminded of a close friend who comes from Ooty (Udhagamandalam), in Tamil Nadu.”

A final question: “oolly” has the property of being listed in NI2 but not in the OED. Is this shared by a large set of words, or just a very few?