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Joined: Aug 2001
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 10,852 Likes: 2 |
a) know the word
b) don't use it regularly, just if I'm trying to be formal or sound literate
and c) FWIW (which isn't much) when I first read your query, I thought you were going to say you had misheard, and what was really said was "Watch out for the pole" !
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Joined: Jun 2000
Posts: 444
addict
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addict
Joined: Jun 2000
Posts: 444 |
I'm with Wofahulicodoc, know but only use in literary attempts. Way most of the men I know drive, I'd have got as far as 'Watch ou...' before we hit it.  Making the question far less material than the bole/trunk/tree...
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Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 1,346
veteran
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veteran
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 1,346 |
Do wood nymphs dance in the woods?Yes, consuelo - but if I'm right in thinking of boles as the remains of a tree after it's been chopped down, you're not gonna get many wood nymphs in that wood belM - It's a "yes" and an "occasionally" for me. I'd definitely have called your remains of a telegraph pole a bole. bole=the bottom bit, including the roots in a live tree. And a bugger to dig up unless you've poured in some nasty toxic substances to kill off the roots first. 
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 275
enthusiast
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enthusiast
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 275 |
How many of you know that a tree trunk is a bole?
Vaguely and once upon a time.
How many of you still use that word?
Once upon a time, not in the last 20 years but will be using it first thing in the morning tomorrow. In our backyard is a problematic bole that is at present the bane of my husband's existence. It wouldn't budge. His latest failed attempt at its destruction is to drill holes in it and then filling up these holes with peanuts, hoping that our resident gazillion squirrels will furiously dig, burrow and render this bole into a pile of wood shavings while they try to take the peanuts out of the holes. Unfortunately, in this game, a Ph.D. holder has been outsmarted by the squirrel. They got the peanuts that they could from the holes without bothering those that they know they have to work at.
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Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 866
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 866 |
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Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 866
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 866 |
> I never heard of a trunk being referred to as a stem
I had a tree surgeon come to check on the health of a huge tree (a Tuart FWIW - one of only two in the suburb, and probably the tallest at 35m/115ft+) that's growing on my boundary a year ago. He referred to the tree's main stem, secondary stems and, overall, its "architecture". Obviously there's a whole language in tree surgery!
stales
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Joined: Apr 2002
Posts: 39
newbie
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newbie
Joined: Apr 2002
Posts: 39 |
Yes
I used it yesterday, in fact, referring to a live oak trunk (bole). I wonder if the word is more common in the south?
Robert Payne
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Joined: Dec 2001
Posts: 688
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addict
Joined: Dec 2001
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Hi Stales! I never heard of a Tuart, and that is some big tree! Any idea how old it is...and is that how big they usually get? Would love to know more!
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Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 866
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 866 |
Hiya Angel Everything you ever wanted to know about Tuarts.... http://www.calm.wa.gov.au/plants_animals/tree_tuart.htmlYa gotta laugh - the example pictured was too big to fit into the "official" photo at the site. One of Perth's suburbs is called Tuart Hill, but I don't think there's any there anymore. Long forgotten firewood by now. Ours is just a pup, prolly about 70 years old. The cascading of gumnuts onto our tin roof is quaint - but can be startling to the unititiated. stales
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Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,439
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,439 |
Know the word but always used in this context : a hard woody often flattened hemispherical outgrowth on a tree O! O! did your husband actually hear the "buh" sound for bole or did it sound like the "puh" sound of pole to him? If he remarked on *B*ole you must have great diction and/or he has superior hearing!
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