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prettygoodwordthole (THOHL) - n., either of a pair of pegs set in a gunwale to hold an oar in place; a handle on the snath (shaft) of a scythe; a pin or peg.
Thanks, WikiMedia!
It also has a dated sense as a verb meaning to suffer/endure, cognate at the PIE level with tolerate, but I'm ignoring that. I knew only the oarlock sense, but discovering that the shaft of a scythe has a technical name, and that it's as lovely as snath, has made my day. Both parts of speech existed in Old English, and while the verb has a clear ancestor in Proto-Germanic *þulāną, to suffer, and thence to PIE *telh₂-, suffer/support, dictionaries suggest a variety of origins for the noun: options include the same PIE root in the support sense, PIE *twel- in the sense of bump, PIE *teuə- in the sense of swelling, and a Germanic root meaning fir-tree.
---L.
Thanks, WikiMedia!
It also has a dated sense as a verb meaning to suffer/endure, cognate at the PIE level with tolerate, but I'm ignoring that. I knew only the oarlock sense, but discovering that the shaft of a scythe has a technical name, and that it's as lovely as snath, has made my day. Both parts of speech existed in Old English, and while the verb has a clear ancestor in Proto-Germanic *þulāną, to suffer, and thence to PIE *telh₂-, suffer/support, dictionaries suggest a variety of origins for the noun: options include the same PIE root in the support sense, PIE *twel- in the sense of bump, PIE *teuə- in the sense of swelling, and a Germanic root meaning fir-tree.
---L.
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