[Fictionary] BURLING results

[Ranjit Bhatnagar]

The correct definition, from the free dictionary dot com, is "dressing or
finishing cloth". Even though I cheated a bit by presenting the -ing form
instead of the infinitive, I didn't fool enough of you, and the free
dictionary dot com earned the most points at six. However, Jean-Joseph's
"Reliable, trustworthy, dependable" came in a strong second with 5 points,
making Jean-Joseph the winner of this round!

I may have lost a def from Hutch, though I can't find it in the usual
crevices of my email. Sorry, Hutch!


PIERRE: 1
burling, n. The activity of visiting shopping malls hunting for bargains.
- Eric: From "Burlington"? *One point* for cleverness.
- Nicolas: I hope there is a word for this
- Pierre: Shop One or Shop the Mall! (Sign in Burlington, North Carolina)
- Hutch: As far as I can tell, shopping malls rarely have actual
"bargains", however frequently they advertise them. I have heard of
"saling", which is browsing garage sales.
- Elliott: Burlington antedates malls.
- Jean-Joseph: Sounds invented, but I'll be embarrassed if it's not.


NICOLAS: 2
burling, n. (Naut.) 1. Tightly coiled rope or cable. 2. A brewing mutiny.
- Pierre: Is a brewing mutiny a mutiny in a brewery, or is it a mutiny that
hasn't come to a head yet? "Tightly coiled rope or cable" could be a real
def, even though it's a fake
def. *Two points*.
- Hutch: I could believe the first, but not the second.
- Elliott: The word sounds appropriate to both defs, but the defs don't
sound appropriate to each other.  If #1 were right, wouldn't #2 be
something like "an efficient crew", "a taut ship", etc.?
- Jean-Joseph: Rope I can see, but tightly coiling cable doesn't seem like
a great idea. And I don't see the connection to to an uprising among the
baristas.


DAVID: 1+2 = 3
burling - n. - stripped, washed, stripped, and dried jute fibres ready to
be woven into burlap
- Nicolas: Two similar ones but burlap seems too on the nose
- Pierre: Burl? nah.
- *Hutch: 1*
- Elliott: Implies that "burlap" is "burl" + "ap", when every schoolchild
knows that burlap is so named because when you wear it, you feel like
you've got a burr on your lap.  Burlington would mean "jute-mill town".
Hmm.
- Jean-Joseph: By elimination I'm down to the two textile definitions, and
I'll give the *two points* to this one.


THEFREEDICTIONARY DOT COM: 2+2+1+1 = 6
burling (v) Dressing or finishing cloth by removing knots, lumps, slubs, or
loose threads.
- Eric: So, "burling" makes 3/7 of us think of burlap. I reject them all.
- *Joshua: 2*
- *Nicolas: 2*
- Pierre: I don't know "slubs", but *one point*.
- Hutch: I would have gone for this one instead of the "burlap" definition
above, but "knots" and "slubs" are not things you would see in woven cloth:
you would see them in spun thread, and you would remove them before
weaving. (My mother is a spinstress and weaver.)
- Elliott: Burlington would be "cloth-finishing town".  Maybe....  But I
don't know "slub", and I'm reluctant to vote for a def that I don't
understand.
- Elliott, later: Checking the OED afterwards: "To dress (cloth), esp. by
removing knots and lumps; ‘to dress cloth as fullers do’ (Johnson)."  And
the first definition for _burl_ is "A small knot or lump in wool or
cloth.". 1879 quotation:  "The burler..carefully removes any knots or
burls."
- Jean-Joseph: *One point* to the remaining textile def.


JOSHUA: 1+1+2 = 4
burling, n. a large, circular chamber dug in the center of a rabbit warren,
used as a nest by the highest-ranking doe of the colony.
- *David: 1*
- Eric: Would have gotten a point if it had used the phrase "queen rabbit".
- *Nicolas: 1*
- Pierre: Rabbits, you have failed to heed the previous warrening!
- Hutch: Somebody has been reading Watership Down recently. However, my
recollection is that, in reality, nests for the does are in dead-end or
blocked side-passages, rather than in any large central space.
- Elliott: This is a nice one.  Do rabbits have a pecking order?  No idea!
What's the advantage of being in the center?  Security?  Warmth? Burlington
would be "Town of the Senior Doe".  *Two points*.
- Jean-Joseph: Do rabbits really have a social structure like ants?


ERIC: 2+1 = 3
burling, n. A customs official in charge of enforcing regulations on
foreign currency and currency exchange. (Fr. Russ. "болгяг", guard.)
- *David: 2*
- *Joshua: 1*
- Nicolas: Now I want to play Papers Please
- Pierre: "Болгяг" doesn't sound Russian. Is it Turkic or Mongolian? 'Г',
like 'к' and 'х', is followed by 'а', not 'я', although it's followed by
'и', not 'ы' (the Czechs beg to differ). I don't see how "болгяг" would
turn into "burling" either.
- Hutch: I would have expected a Russian currency official to have some
connection to either valyuta or den'gi (two words for, roughly, "money") in
their name.
- Elliott: Definition 2: A customs official in charge of pocketing a hefty
share of any foreign currency in exchange for not enforcing regulations on
it. You can get from Canada to Burlington by boat.
- Jean-Joseph: I think that transliterates to "bolgyag". Hmm. Does that
seem like it would morph into "burling"? I'll guess not. (More likely it's
from Pierre.)


ELLIOTT:
burling (n.) -- 1.  A failure mode of lava lamps, in which wax stops
circulating and accumulates at the top due to a weak or reversed
temperature gradient.  2.  Obstructed turnover in rotating leadership
positions owing to a lack of willing successors.
- Nicolas: The failure mode of lava lamps is kid begging and begging for
one and then almost never using it 😆
- Hutch: I've certainly been in the latter situation. But I'm highly
skeptical of both definitions: they both seem overly specific to be real.
:-D
- Elliott: Self-plagiarism; #1 is reverse-biasing the "convective heat
diode" def for "ucalegon", the one that sounded so physically impossible.
 (Even an actual physicist I described it to started to object ``But
Maxwell's Demon ---'' before identifying it as a convection cell.)  #2 is
new, but does it accurately describe Burlington?
- Jean-Joseph: Maybe from Elliott?


JEAN-JOSEPH: 2+2+1 = 5
burling - adj. - Reliable, trustworthy, dependable.
- Eric: *Two points*. Because I reject _a priori_ all the burlap/fiber
definitions, and the only other plausible definition is mine.
- Nicolas: It's probably actually this one
- Hutch: I suspect that someone is thinking of "burly" (or perhaps the
Dwarfish Ankh-Morpork arms dealers Burley and Stronginthearm). But going
for an adjective is worth *2 points*. (Besides which, I don't really
believe any of the rest either. :-D)
- Elliott: Maybe people used to esteem those virtues enough to name a town
after them.  *One point*.
- Jean-Joseph: In honor of Hutch's and my mutual friend Doug Berling, who
certainly has these qualities. (I saw Doug late last summer, but I expect
it's been many years since he and Hutch have crossed paths.)
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