culm

May. 9th, 2019 07:58 am
prettygoodword: text: words are sexy (Default)
[personal profile] prettygoodword
culm1 (kuhlm) - n., the segmented stem of a grass or similar plant.

culm2 (kuhlm) - n., coal dust; inferior anthracite coal.


I've no idea now which sense prompted putting it in the queue -- possibly I jotted it down to look it up. The first word is from Latin culmus, stalk; the second dates back to Middle English (as colme) but is of unclear origin -- one speculation is that it's co(a)l plus a suffix -m of otherwise unknown meaning. Here's some sugar-cane culms:

colmes!
Thanks, WikiMedia!

---L.

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