On Mon, 30 Nov 2015 16:46:52 Janet wrote:

In article ,
says...

On Sun, 29 Nov 2015 22:21:40 philgurr wrote:

"Gary Woods" wrote in message
.. .

Quite a while ago, I bought a neat little tool described as a "Widger."
Just a slightly curved piece of stainless steel sort of the size of a
largish pen; different widths on the 2 ends; used for pricking out
seedlings and transplanting small stuff.
The name sounds very British - is it?
Previously (and still for very small seedlings), I used a pocket sized
flatblade screwdriver.

See :- http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/de...english/widger

That reference suggests that it is a nonsense word "used in a series of
memory tests". There is no etymology connected with it other than that
so it would appear that it is a word that someone made up when he/she
didn't know what to call it, and it stuck.

The word doesn't appear in my 1950s OED.


Oxford Dictionary

Widget

A small gadget or mechanical device.

Cambridge English Dictionary;

WIDGET

any small device whose name you have forgotten or do not know


Janet

The word in question is "WIDGER", not "WIDGET".

David

--
David Rance writing from Caversham, Reading, UK