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Surprising list. It includes quite common words such as 'cub' and 'scoundrel'. I checked on one word however, 'schooner', and although most sources said the origin was unknown, I did turn up the following from Webster:
The fist schooner ever constructed is said to have between built in Gloucester, Massachusetts, about theyar 1713, by a Captain Andrew Robinson, and to have received its name from the following trivial circumstance: When the vessel went off the stocks into the water, a bystander cried out,O, how she scoons!" Robinson replied, A scooner let her be;" and, from that time, vessels thus masted and rigged have gone by this name. The word scoon is popularly used in some parts of New England to denote the act of making stones skip along the surface of water. The Scottish scon means the same thing. Both words are probably allied to the Icel. skunda, skynda, to make haste, hurry, AS. scunian to avoid, shun, Prov. E. scun. In the New England records, the word appears to have been originally written scooner. Babson, in his History of Gloucester," gives the following extract from a letter written in that place Sept. 25, 1721, by Dr. Moses Prince, brother of the Rev. Thomas Prince, the annalist of New England: This gentleman (Captain Robinson) was first contriver of schooners, and built the first of that sort about eight years since."
So, perhaps a bit of digging would bring up possibilities for at least some of the other words.
In the process of hunting about I came across this Canadian site relating to the Stone of Scone that may be of interest.
http://www.durham.net/~neilmac/stone.htm
Entire Thread Subject Posted By Posted fun word list wwh 02/27/03 02:30 PM Re: fun word list dxb 02/28/03 09:14 AM Re: fun word list AnnaStrophic 02/28/03 09:59 AM Re: fun word list dxb 02/28/03 10:31 AM Re: fun word list Wordwind 02/28/03 10:37 AM Re: scones Faldage 02/28/03 11:44 AM Re: fun word list wwh 02/28/03 02:01 PM Re: fun word list Faldage 02/28/03 02:36 PM Re: fun word list wwh 02/28/03 03:08 PM Re: fun word list dxb 03/03/03 12:35 PM Re: fun word list Faldage 03/03/03 01:33 PM Re: fun word list dxb 03/03/03 02:08 PM Re: fun word list AnnaStrophic 03/03/03 02:19 PM Re: fun word list dxb 03/03/03 02:25 PM Re: fun word list wwh 03/03/03 02:50 PM Re: fun word list Faldage 03/03/03 03:12 PM The mind's 'ere - RhubarbCommando 03/03/03 02:10 PM
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