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AmericanEnglish again
On 1/12/2015 2:54 AM, David Rance wrote:
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. It appears in my OED: widger: Also erron. 'wigger'. See quote 1956. A gardening tool consiting of a small strip of metal, with a shallow furrow down the centre, used as a miniature trowel to remove seedlings, cultivate pot plants etc. The instances of its occurrence follow with it's first appearance listed as being in 1956. |
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