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Joined: Sep 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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OP
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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Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 3,409
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 3,409 |
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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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