Word of the Week (January 25- February 1): spudgel

Word of the Week: January 25- February 1


spudgel


Definition according to the Dictionary of Newfoundland English:


spudgel n also spudget*, spudgin*, spudgy* [phonetics unavailable]. EDD ~ sb 1 'a wooden bowl with a long handle used for bailing' Gl IW Do So; DC Nfld (1775, 1937) for sense 1.


1 Small wooden bucket with a long handle, used to bail water from a deep-keeled boat; PIGGIN.


[1775] 1792 CARTWRIGHT ii, 73 The boat proved so leaky, that the spudgel was scarce ever out of hand.


1792 ibid Gloss i, xv ~ A small bucket fixed to the end of a pole, to throw the water out of a boat, which has no pump.


1897 J A Folklore x, 210 ~ a small bucket used for dipping the water out of the dill and bailing their boats.


[c1900] 1978 RLS 8, p. 26 ~ a boat bailer consisting of a bucket with a long handle through it.


1937 DEVINE 47 Spudgell. A bailing bucket. It is different from a piggin in being tub shaped and having a long handle—somewhat like a corn-cob pipe.


1951 Nfld & Lab Pilot i, 208 Otter Rub point, with Spudgell cove close north-eastward of it, lies 1¼ miles east-northeastward of the entrance to Pays cove; Spudgell Cove rocks extend three-quarters of a cable southward. P 102-60 If a man was a bit of a cooper [he would go] to the coopershop and make piggins and spudgils out of pork barrel staves. The difference between a piggin and a spudgil: one was about 10 or 12 inches high with one stave about 5 or 6 inches longer than the others to use as a handle; the spudgil was about the same size but through the handle stave was bored a hole about one inch in size through which was passed a round stick from the top and fastened to the bottom and about 4 or 5 feet long so as the man using it did not have to stoop down to bail out water from the dill in the after part of the boat. T 43/7-64 A piggin got the handle attached, an' the spudgel is the one with [the handle] on an angle. T 90-64 The spudgel [is] the little tub with a long stick in it for the larger boats, to throw the water over the gunnel.


1971 NOSEWORTHY 248 ~, spudgin, spudgy. A ten-pound tub with a long wooden handle, 5 or 6 ft. long, nailed on. It is used for bailing out deep, keeled boats. P 209-73 Spuggal. A large wooden container with a long handle used to bail water from a boat.


1975 BUTLER 38-9 1 had two big long-handled spudgels aboard. I said 'Jack, here, take one of those and,' I said, 'if you ever worked in your life, work now, if you don't want to drown.'


2 Metal or wooden container with a long handle, often larger than a boat bailer, used to dip water from a well, hot bark in the tanning of nets, and for other purposes. T 14/19-64 You'll take your spudgel and you'll dip out your tan out of the boiler and throw it on your twine and let it remain there all night. T 94/5-64 An' in the summer when [the well would] go a bit low they'd have a spudgel, a big can on a wooden machine they made—a long stick went right through from side to side so it wouldn't come off-and you'd fill up your buckets with that. C 71-103 The kind of spudgel that was used to draw water from a well consisted of a large can and a long wooden handle [that] went through a hole in the side and on down to the bottom.


1973 BARBOUR 51-2 ~ It is made of wood, shaped like a bucket, and has a long handle which goes through the bucket slantwise, or, as a fisherman would say, 'scow ways.' At Blanc Sablon the spudgel was used to dip water from over the side of the wharf in order to wash down the troughs and wharf. In lots of places the spudgel is used mainly to dip fresh water from deep wells.


1979 TIZZARD 55 This water was usually drawn up or taken from the well by a spudgel, a small tub or can made fast to the end of a long pole.


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