kier / keeve
Sep. 28th, 2012 07:18 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
prettygoodwordkier (KEER) - n., a vat or circular boiler in which fibers, yarns, fabrics, or wood pulp are boiled, bleached, or dyed.
keeve or kieve (KEEV) - n., a vat or tub for making mash, for bleaching (also called a kier), for dressing ores, and so on.
Almost but not quite synonyms -- there is intersection but not complete overlap, in that a spherical, pressurized boiler is never called a keeve and a vat not used for bleaching or boiling fibers (either for fabric or paper) is not called a kier. Also, keeve can be a verb (to set something to bleech or ferment in one) and kier apparently cannot. Both are old, old North Germanic roots -- keeve dates back to Old English cȳf, vat (either descended from or cognate to Latin cupa, a tub), while kier is from Old Norse ker, vessel, vat.
And that wraps it up for this week's doublets. I'd say back to the regular randomness on Monday, but this was pretty random as it was.
---L.
keeve or kieve (KEEV) - n., a vat or tub for making mash, for bleaching (also called a kier), for dressing ores, and so on.
Almost but not quite synonyms -- there is intersection but not complete overlap, in that a spherical, pressurized boiler is never called a keeve and a vat not used for bleaching or boiling fibers (either for fabric or paper) is not called a kier. Also, keeve can be a verb (to set something to bleech or ferment in one) and kier apparently cannot. Both are old, old North Germanic roots -- keeve dates back to Old English cȳf, vat (either descended from or cognate to Latin cupa, a tub), while kier is from Old Norse ker, vessel, vat.
And that wraps it up for this week's doublets. I'd say back to the regular randomness on Monday, but this was pretty random as it was.
---L.
