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| Taking their youngest brother wooding was a bit of a bother but no one seemed to mind letting him gather all the wood he could carry... |
[Old English widu, wudu; related to Old High German witu, Old Norse vithr]
They worked methodically; almost everyone went wooding in the village, and the Fothergills had become experts at knowing what best to take and what best to leave and just how much they could carry. All Else Confusion
Now why does 'wooding' remind me of 'wassiling'? It sounds like a bit of a made-up word to me (I'm not about to hold that against it). I'd hate to actually have to rely (to any significant degree) on windfall and subsequently gathered pieces of wood as a primary heat source.
It's another matter entirely when you've gone camping and send your little ones to scuttle into the bush for dry tender (that dry bit can be tricky here in Oregon) and s'more sticks...Mmmmm, s'mores...
Where's Betty Miranda when we need her? I'll admit I never used this term, or heard it used, all the time I was in the UK. (Chambers, my Brit Dictionary, seems to think the expression is "wooding up" - which isn't to say The Great Betty got it wrong as I'm sure there are regional variations.)
ReplyDeleteWhen Betty Ross (who, like Betty Henry before him, is responsible for felling, bucking, transporting to the barn, splitting & stacking all the wood we burn here -- about 6-8 cords per winter) gets back I'll have him comment on "wooding."
(This reference might fly by some Bettys, but does anyone else hear an unfortunate "Boogie Nights" connotation in "wooding"?)
One of our female brand-new professors proposed a course entitled, "Sporting Wood" on sport and cinema. Another (male) professor gave her a bunch of grief because of the name being suggestive. Professor van der Hertenzoon had to (gingerly) explain it to both of us. Again, I maintain that if males spent more time fixing the porch and painting the bathroom, they would have less time to spend on the foolishness of sitting around dreaming these terms up....
ReplyDeleteA class entitled "Sporting Wood"? Wow. I'm not sure I get the sport/wood/cinema tie-in. I understand the word 'wood' as a euphemism...oh, never mind, there's just no way this is going to be explained in a non-Britonish way.
ReplyDeleteWow. That's breath-taking. Are you sure the female faculty member wasn't trying to slip one by, knowing EVERYONE would want to take that class?
ReplyDeleteI know I'm rather better acquainted with the literary & cinematic portrayals of Brighton than most other Bettys, but I rather assume many people know -- if only in self-defense -- the most prevalent euphemisms for (as the Brits say) the external male member.
As a class, men (as I'm sure Betty JoDee is aware) will *always* find time to contemplate, name, dream about -- and otherwise reflect upon the presumption that the world should & does revolve around the importance of -- the external male member. There are exceptions, of course, to that broad statement, and I'm awfully glad we're each married to an exception!
What's this "we," kimosabe?
ReplyDeleteAccording to Chambers, it's a pronoun for "I and others," so you may exempt yourself from that as you see fit. I'm fairly sure I'm not the only person who believes her husband not to be obsessed with that portion of the anatomy.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, the whole of Chambers' definition made me smile:
We: plural of I; I and others; people in general; used for I by monarchs; also used by editors, etc; used when speaking patronizingly, esp to children, to mean 'you'