I tried to find etymology of "thimble". No luck, except
from one of Dr.Wertelecki's sites:
THIMBLE id+ | METAL TIP | also note
cont> see> THUMB
med> see> THUMB implies THICK FINGER
akin to a THIGH
eng TUBER KNOT in TUBERCULOSIS
TUMOR DISORDER TUMULT
TURGOR TURGENT ERECT
lat TUBER SWELLING or KNOT
TUMERE SWELL
lith TUKTI TO BECOME FAT
TAUKAS ANIMAL FAT sug> LARD
gr TUMBOS BURIAL MOUND
sp TUMBA see> TOMB
TUMBAR TO MAKE FALL
TUMBADO FALLEN

"Turgor" is a word I've not seen for a long time. I remember
it in biology referring to tendency of cells to imbibe water
causing a tissue to become enlarged and more resistant to
gravity, etc.

In reply to:

---

TAUKAS ANIMAL FAT sug> LARD

---

Now this is interesting. Isn't there a word for 'butt' that sounds something like 'tookas'? And there's 'tuche' or is it 'toosh' for the butt also, isn't there?

Yiddish

Tush


I been up, I been down.
Take my word, my way around.
I ain't askin' for much.
I said, Lord, take me downtown,
I'm just lookin' for some tush.

I been bad, I been good,
Dallas, Texas, Hollywood.
I ain't askin' for much.
I said, Lord, take me downtown,
I'm just lookin' for some tush.


Take me back way back home,
not by myself, not alone.
I ain't askin' for much.
I said, Lord, take me downtown,
I'm just lookin' for some tush.


- Frank Beard, Bill Gibbons & Dusty Hill

wouldn't have been quite the same if they we're looking for some tucchus...



edit
I found this in the process:
http://psy.otago.ac.nz/r_oshea/slang.html
do you have this one, Max?

My spelling has been horrible today! OK. Got it:

tush and tucchus
selvage and salvage (cross-thread ref.)

But tush and tucchus: Are they both simply related to the ideas of fat and fatness? I would think definitely yes based on wwh's post way back up there.

well, as Bill mentions. tucchus is Yiddish for buttocks. so you can draw your own conclusions about fat...


don't worry about your spelling WW, it took me three tries to find tucchus...

Oh, not just the Yiddish, et', but the etymology trail wwh posted and this specifically:

lith TUKTI TO BECOME FAT
TAUKAS ANIMAL FAT sug> LARD


The word 'taukas' [animal fat] just sounded so much like
the 'tucchus' you have taught me to spell correctly, 'et. And so I thought perhaps that whever tucchas came into being in whatever spelling it first came to refer to the butt, I think perhaps it could have referred to the fatness of the tucchus that led to its moniker. Just a probably too obvious observation.

too obvious observation

makes sense to me!

tucchus is Yiddish for buttocks

and people are reminded, with only one tucchus, you can't dance at two wedding(at the same time)--no matter how much you multitask, there are limits.

Not quite sure what the English spelling of tuches should be. The Yiddish is from the Hebrew: TChT (i.e., tav-cheth-thav). The Hebrew words in Yiddish are pronounced according to Ashkenazic (i.e., German) pronunciation, whereas Israeli Hebrew is pronounced according to Sephardic (i.e., Spanish) pronunciation. You can see this in shabbath versus shabbes 'Saturday, Sabbath'. The pronunciations are quite different: for vowels, consonants, and stress (accent). Cf. Seph. torah with accent on the final syllable versus Ashk. toyre with accent on the first, both meaning 'Pentateuch'. And, Seph. tachath is from a preposition tachat 'under, below'. So, I'd say the connection with thimble is unlikely. Though looking at Pokorny, I see that *teuk- coincidentally yields Old Irish ton and Welsh tin 'ass, butt'.