#71317
05/26/2002 2:57 AM
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Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 2,891
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 2,891 |
All right, this is just a show of hands question...
Before I ask, here is the story behind the question:
Tonight, my hubby and I went to some friends' house. We were looking for a parking spot on the street and we backed around a corner.
It is in an area that has just been rebuilt. The old tree-trunk telephone poles have not been replaced yet so they are smack dab in the street.
Well when we backed around the corner I saw a pole but my hubby didn't seem to have seen it. My automatic reaction was to urgently say "watch out for the bole"
Here is the question...
How many of you know that a tree trunk is a bole?
How many of you still use that word?
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#71318
05/26/2002 3:11 AM
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Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 3,409
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 3,409 |
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#71319
05/26/2002 3:37 AM
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Joined: Dec 2001
Posts: 688
addict
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addict
Joined: Dec 2001
Posts: 688 |
Never heard the word before....and never use it.
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#71320
05/26/2002 3:47 AM
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Joined: May 2002
Posts: 0
stranger
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stranger
Joined: May 2002
Posts: 0 |
Unknown and unused -- until now. Thanks for bole, bel. From the same root as bollix, phallus, and folly.http://www.bartleby.com/61/roots/IE51.html
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#71321
05/26/2002 4:58 AM
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Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 819
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 819 |
I've always thought of the bole as being that part of the trunk that joins with the roots, but not the upper trunk. As soon as I can get my copy of Understanding Wood by Bruce Hoadley back from a friend who borrowed it, I can give you the definition therein.
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#71322
05/26/2002 10:34 AM
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Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296 |
I'd use trunk. Bole: Not to be confused with boll as in the boll weevil of the American South. But you can poll a tree: Main Entry: 2poll
Date: 14th century
transitive senses
1 a : to cut off or cut short the hair or wool of : CROP, SHEAR b : to cut off or cut short (as wool)
2 a : to cut off or back the top of (as a tree); specifically : POLLARD b : to cut off or cut short the horns of (cattle)http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary
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#71323
05/26/2002 11:21 AM
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Joined: May 2002
Posts: 0
stranger
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stranger
Joined: May 2002
Posts: 0 |
My automatic reaction was to urgently say "watch out for the bole"
What a perfect example of the difficulties each of us word-nuts can suffer in [let us say] "interspousal communications".
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#71324
05/26/2002 1:56 PM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
And I'm shedding great big tears of frustration. If any of you had looked at that Viking word site I posted yesterday, you would know that "bole" is of Scandinavian origin and does mean tree trunk. http://viking.no/e/england/e-viking_words_2.htm#CIt's set to the "C" words, scroll up to the "B" words
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#71325
05/26/2002 3:30 PM
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Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296 |
wwh:
I accessed your link. Here's what was there:
bole (n) Stem of a tree. Scan => ME bol, Ice bolr, bulr (the trunk of a tree), Swe bål, Dan bul.
Stem of tree? I never heard of a trunk being referred to as a stem...though later in the definition there's bulr (the trunk of a tree).
Bulr makes me think of burled oak, but I don't expect there's a connection...
Bole regards,
Woodsworth
Edit/Addendum: A little more on burls (as in burled oak):
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English burle, from (assumed) Middle French bourle tuft of wool, from (assumed) Vulgar Latin burrula, diminutive of Late Latin burra shaggy cloth
Date: 15th century
1 : a knot or lump in thread or cloth
2 a : a hard woody often flattened hemispherical outgrowth on a tree b : veneer made from burls
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#71326
05/26/2002 4:01 PM
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Joined: Jun 2001
Posts: 2,636
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2001
Posts: 2,636 |
Have I heard of the word? Do wood nymphs dance in the woods? Do I ever use the word? Sometimes.
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#71327
05/27/2002 11:31 PM
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Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 11,066 Likes: 2
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 11,066 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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#71328
06/01/2002 11:35 AM
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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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#71329
06/01/2002 10:16 PM
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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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#71330
06/02/2002 3:52 AM
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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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#71331
06/03/2002 3:14 PM
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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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#71332
06/03/2002 3:20 PM
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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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#71333
06/03/2002 6:39 PM
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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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#71334
06/03/2002 11:37 PM
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Joined: Dec 2001
Posts: 688
addict
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addict
Joined: Dec 2001
Posts: 688 |
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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#71335
06/04/2002 10:42 AM
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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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#71336
06/04/2002 3:52 PM
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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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#71337
06/05/2002 1:43 AM
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Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 819
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 819 |
our resident gazillion squirrels will furiously dig, burrow and render this bole into a pile of wood shavingsTell yur PhD (Peanut heaving Doctor) to try termites!
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#71338
06/06/2002 10:09 PM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 275
enthusiast
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enthusiast
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 275 |
Tell yur PhD (Peanut heaving Doctor) to try termites!
Bite your naughty tongue, Geoff!
Back to the word "bole", isn't the term "a boled tree" used in the nurseries for a young sapling that is dug out and whose roots with the soil and all is wrapped in burlap ready for transport to garden centers?
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#71339
06/06/2002 10:19 PM
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Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296 |
And then there are polled trees, aren't there? Ones that have the upper branches cut off kind of flat?
I'm persistent here, I know--but I wonder whether you could poll a bole?
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#71340
06/07/2002 10:32 PM
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Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,439
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,439 |
could (you) poll a bole?
Arrrrgggghhhh!!!!
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#71341
06/07/2002 11:46 PM
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Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 11,066 Likes: 2
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 11,066 Likes: 2 |
...and if you had a penny a pitch (and a loverly bunch of coconuts), could you roll a poll a bole?
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