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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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I recently drove past a number of old Kentish oast-houses, which were once used for drying the hops used in beer making. Thought I should look the word up! Fascinating to find that oast derives from the Latin for summer: From MW : Main Entry: oast Pronunciation: 'Ost Function: noun Etymology: Middle English ost, from Old English Ast; akin to Middle Dutch eest kiln, Latin aestus heat, aestas summer Date: before 12th century : a usually conical kiln used for drying hops, malt, or tobacco -- called also oast·house \-"haus\ A picture of a double oast: http://www.nina.gemineans.co.uk/pics/history/indust/oasthse.JPG
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Umm, your source says akin to rather than derives from. I assume this means that they share a common (Indo-European) derivation.
Interesting all the same.
Bingley
Bingley
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Latin aestus heat,
Interesting. I'm reminded of oestrus, another kind of *heat. I don't expect there to be a linguistic connection, but the words do share some superficial similarities.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Œstrus derives from a word meaning gadfly. The PIE root is eis- and is used in words denoting passion. Related words include irate, hieratic, and iron.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Dear dxb: Please can you tell us what the structure is on the peak of cone? I wonder if it might have been a vent rotated by a vane, to keep out rain and assist ventilation.
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Pooh-Bah
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OP
Pooh-Bah
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Dear wwh, Your supposition is correct. You are referring to the 'cowl', usually painted white, which has a wind vane and a hot air vent. The structure in the picture is quite a large oast house. For large scale commercial production they were arranged in batteries and did not look attractive, but there are still many single oasts, smaller than the twin shown in the picture, and these can look very picturesque when converted into cottages. Sadly, the industry is virtually dead now. The best source of information I have found on hops and oasts, including a cross section through an oast house is at: http://www.digiserve.com/peter/oast.htm
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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dxb, i read the text as well, in you link on the oasts - i know very little about hops, -the is the bit in Tess of the d'Urbervilles, about hop picking, and i have seen wild hops growing in NY...
Early on, i came across this sentenceThe hop fields are fragrant with the heavy smell of the hop flowers and the bines are so thick with leaves to the point where the poles that support them... and thought it was a typo, since B and V are next to each other on the key board..
but latter in the text there is this,
a kind of foreman, who would as a badge of his rank carry a long pole tipped with a sharp hook which he would use to cut the bines away from the hop-twine that supported themand the word is used again for the third time (and i screwed up copying it) so now i am wondering why Hops vines are called bines?
or is it three typo's? (not likely!)
and on another thought, is the french word for the month we call august an other related word to oast/or its root?
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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The French name for the month August is simply a worn-down version of the Latin name Augustus. The ultimat PIE root is aug-. http://www.bartleby.com/61/roots/IE28.html
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Dear dxb: thanks for the additional link. It taught me a new word. When I saw "bine" I thought it was a typo for "vine". Then I saw it three ;more times, so looked in my dictionary, and found:
bine 7bjn8
n.
5dial. form of BIND6
1 any climbing, twining stem, as of the hop
2 a plant having such stems
bine
n.
5dial. form of BIND6
1 any climbing, twining stem, as of the hop
2 a plant having such stems
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Pooh-Bah
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OP
Pooh-Bah
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Dr Bill has largely answered tthe question on bine v. vine. The OED says that bine was originally a dialect form of 'bind' - as in 'bindweed' (convolvulus) I suppose, whereas vine is of course linked to wine. The hop plant used to grow wild in the countryside before it became cultivated and I should think it may well have been considered as a weed. A bit of a bind to have one in your vegetable patch you could say  .
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