Wordful is a new language site from Australia whose creator says:
Words. How I love ’em. This is where I’ll share my love for word histories, names and anything else wordy that pops into my head.
This is obviously a good premise for a website, and he’s already turned up some wonderful stuff, like morkin:
I saw a dead possum on the road this morning. The poor morkin.
Morkin is an obsolete word meaning “A beast that has died of disease or by mischance.” … What a great word!
(The etymology I have elided is a little off; the OED says: “Anglo-Norman mortekine, morticine and Middle French morticine carrion… < post-classical Latin morticinum carrion…, use as noun of neuter of classical Latin morticinus (of an animal) that has died a natural death, prob. < mort-, mors death…,” with the ending perhaps influenced by words like firkin, napkin, &c.)
I can’t resist adding the last item in the OED entry, the (obsolete and rare) compound morkin-gnoff ‘a miser’: 1602 W. Basse Sword & Buckler sig. Biij, A morkin-gnoffe that.. Sits carping how t’advance his shapelesse brood.
One interesting feature of the site is “Todays Website Name,” which provides a word or phrase that might be suitable for someone’s website; today’s is subslice.
Welcome to Blogovia!
Update. It’s August 2006, and the site has been dead for who knows how long. Sigh.
Further update. As of May 2010, the main Blurburger site is up, and the associated blog Blurg was last updated in September.
Speaking of new words and the OED…
Yeah, when I read that I almost blogged it. But then something came up and I forgot. Great word, tittuping.
I was hoping morkin-gnoff would be a cutthroat compound (http://www.encyclopediabriannica.com/?p=57), since so many of them describe misers, but it seems like morkin = roadkill and gnoffe = thief, so it’s a miser would who steal roadkill to save money. Like a skinflint would try to make money selling the hide of an insect.
Thanks for the explanation, it’s delightful 🙂
Glad you liked it, and sorry to see Blurburger has bit the dust.