Word of the Week (April 6 - 12) pelt

Word of the Week (April 6 - 12)
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pelt

Definition according to the online Dictionary of Newfoundland English:

pelt n Cp OED ~ sb1 'skin of a sheep or goat'; cp EDD sb3 for sense 2; OED sb1 3 (1903 quot), EDD sb1 3 (2) for sense 3.

1 The skin of a seal with the fat or blubber attached; SCULP n; occas the seal itself (see 1891 quot); FAT1 2.

1792 CARTWRIGHT Gloss i, xii-xiii ~ The skin of an animal with the fat adhering to it. That term is made use of for the skins of seals, and other such animals, the fat of which lies between the skin and the flesh.

[1799] 1976 HEAD 224-5 The ice ... affords the inhabitants an opportunity of going off and killing the seals in great numbers, bringing their pelts on shore.

1842 JUKES i, 273 The skin is laid out flat and entire, with the layer of fat or blubber firmly adhering to it, and the skin in this state is called the 'pelt,' and sometimes the 'sculp.'

[1870] 1899 Nfld Law Reports 338 The action was brought to recover damages for the wrongful conversion of the pelts of certain seals which the plaintiffs allege they had killed, and sculped, and left on the ice several miles from their vessel during the last seal fishery.

1891 PACKARD 444 The Hooded Seal is not uncommonly, during the spring, killed in considerable numbers by the sealers. The young 'pelt' weighs 70-80 pounds, while the old male or 'dog hood,' weighs 400 pounds.

1933 GREENE 72 Size of hide or weight of fat—both of which together, after being cut away from the carcase, form what the sealer terms the 'sculps' or 'pelts' that he gathers when in the Patches. T 43/4-64 The pelt is the fat an' the skin.

1976 Evening Telegram 19 Mar, p. 6 You don't skin a seal, you sculp them! You take the seal's pelt, fat, and hide off.

2 Mischievous boy or youth, freq in phr pelt of a tripe: DEVIL'S PELT. Cp NUZZLE-TRIPE*.

1937 DEVINE 37 Pelt of a tripe. A rascal. P 118-67 You brazen little pelts!

3 Phr in bare pelt: stark naked (P 108-70).

pelt v Cp OED ~ v2 'to skin' obs (1596, 1641); cp NID ~ 2 v. To remove the skin and the attached fat from a seal carcass; SCULP1 1. [1771] 1792 CARTWRIGHT i, 1811 pelted ten harps.

1819 ANSPACH 423 The dead seals are dragged on the ice to the schooner or boat; they are then pelted, that is, the skin with the coat of fat adhering to it is separated from the carcase.

1895 GRENFELL 200 I had two seals in my boat, and we pelted (i.e. skinned) them to burn the fat, breaking up one of the smaller boats, also, to use as fuel.

1924 ENGLAND 88 Lusty toilers are meantime, with 'seal-dog' hooks and ropes, hauling the round-seals up and in. Once on board, the men pelt these in a jiffy. T 43-64 On the ice you crack 'em on the head with your gaff, an' then you pelt 'em.

1976 Evening Telegram 19 Mar, p. 6 The seals were 'pelted' by the sealers and skinned by seal skinners.

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