[Fictionary] BURLING results

[Fran Poodry]

Hutch said:
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.)

But there are some woven fabrics which have the slubs deliberately left in,
such as dupioni silk or shantung silk. Sometimes slubs are a feature of
upholstery fabric as well. But I agree that in most other cases, you would
definitely remove the slubs or if you had particularly slubby thread you
just wouldn’t use for weaving fabric. Sometimes yarn with slubs is used for
hand knitting, though.


*Fran Poodry (she/her)*
*Oregon, USA*



*“Children must be taught how to think, not what to think.” ― Margaret Mead
<http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/61107.Margaret_Mead>*


On Sun, Jan 28, 2024 at 10:10 AM Ranjit Bhatnagar <ranjit at moonmilk.com>
wrote:

> 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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