#66229
04/18/2002 4:28 PM
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 2,661
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Posts: 2,661 |
The originals were, as was claimed by The History Channel, the British "sappers" of WWII. Where did 'sapper' come from?
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#66230
04/18/2002 5:16 PM
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Posts: 13,803 |
Where did 'sapper' come from?
Good question. I'm glad you asked that.
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#66231
04/18/2002 5:19 PM
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Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 2,605
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Posts: 2,605 |
aw, faldage, I wanted to take it. Perhaps our french-speakers (bel?) could add a special perspective?
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#66232
04/18/2002 6:34 PM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Posts: 13,858 |
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
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#66233
04/18/2002 6:53 PM
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Posts: 13,803 |
taken the trouble to find out
I knew I could count on you, Dr. Bill. Thanks.
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#66234
04/18/2002 10:26 PM
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Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 4,189
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Posts: 4,189 |
from the link: Although the Italian word zappa had long been used to denote a garden hoeSo Frank was a garden hoe?  And what's more...did he know that? The Only WO'N!
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#66235
04/18/2002 10:32 PM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Posts: 13,858 |
Dear WO'N: I hope that doesn't make his daughters hoers.
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#66236
04/18/2002 10:32 PM
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Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 4,189
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Posts: 4,189 |
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]
The Only WO'N!
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#66237
04/19/2002 12:01 AM
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 2,661
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Thanks for clarifying the question, W'ON. No, really!
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#66238
04/19/2002 12:36 AM
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Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 4,189
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Dear WO'N: I hope that doesn't make his daughters hoers.Or hoers d'oeuvres!  The Only WO'N!
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#66239
04/19/2002 1:27 AM
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Joined: Nov 2001
Posts: 279
enthusiast
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enthusiast
Joined: Nov 2001
Posts: 279 |
And would it make his his son's rakes?
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#66240
04/19/2002 2:38 AM
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Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 4,189
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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#66241
04/19/2002 12:56 PM
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Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,146
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Posts: 3,146 |
So Frank was a garden hoe? And what's more...did he know that?
"You'd see them every day in a world of their own,
To some it might seem creepy what they do ....
The neighbours on the right
Sat and watched them every night.
I bet that you would too if they were you ...."
From Let's Make The Water Turn Black, Mothers of Invention, Mother's Day album
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
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