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Carpal Tunnel
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OP
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
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for some inexplicable reason I have a block against remembering this word for a shipboard (or dockside?) crane.
the etymology is not helpful: Middle English daviot, from Norman French daviot, diminutive of Davi, David.
David <> crane ??
edit: it occurs to me that a similar word, derrick, might prove to be interesting...
obs. derrick hangman, gallows, fr. Derick, name of 17th cent. Eng. hangman
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613 |
A derrick was named after a hangman? Yow.
David, which can be spelled Davet in French, means beloved. What that might have to do with a shipboard crane, I do not know. Maybe a Davet Somebody or a Somebody Davet invented them?
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Joined: Apr 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Dr. Bill points out that there are many types of davits: shipboard, waterfront, dockside - the bent posts that support the lifeboats and liferafts are also called davits.here some pictures of some more: http://www.davitmaster.com/default.asp
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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>>David<>Crane?
After looking at your pics of Davets, I wonder if it's because -- from the angle and extension -- some of them look like erect penises.
*Edit* That is, from David = beloved.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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the bent posts that support the lifeboats and liferafts are also called davits. That's what I'd been thinking! 'Splains why I was a bit cornfused by cranes... All you Davids out there (you know who you are!): you are indeed beloved to me.  It has also always been one of my favorite guys' names.
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Carpal Tunnel
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