Thursday, November 10, 2011

skulk


Just a word I heard recently, which got me thinking about it. I know, or think I know, what skulking is, of course. I think of it as sort of lingering around in the shadows in a less than candid or forthright way. I'm not sure if it always has an extra nefarious motive, but I think usually it does.

It's a great word. Where did it come from? I'm going to guess it's an old Anglo-Saxon one.

***
 Well, it's Middle English out of Scandinavian. It's got relatives in Norway (skulka, to lurk), Sweden (skolka, which seems to focus on doing a bunk, cutting a class, playing truant) and Denmark (skulke, meaning shirk). I don't have a lot more to reveal about the meaning or history of the word, but I did find one cool thing that I did not know.

If you have three or more foxes together, you have a skulk of them.

A skulk of foxes, yes, but not exactly skulking.

11 comments:

  1. Do shirk and skulk come from the same root?

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  2. It doesn't seem so, no. The etymologists are a bit tentative, saying only that perhaps it comes from the German schurke, or scoundrel.

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  3. I suspected as much. The sh/sk correspondance is well established (schip/ship; I'm guessed that skipper is of Scandinavian origin and that if means "someone who runs a scip (ship)). But one would have to account for the r and l sounds, and I know of know what to do that.

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  4. Thanks for skulking around for skulk for us, and thanks for that skulk of adorable foxes.

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  5. In Europe it can be very pejorative.

    I once stopped seeing a very rude person who used the expression, probably innocently, as they were not from these parts (there were many other more reasons, not linguistically linked, in case I seem hard).

    http://www.memidex.com/mouch+beggar

    Accusing a person of skulking is not an effective way to make friends.

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  6. Thanks, Kathleen. I love foxes. I've even met a few

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  7. Maria, it's not exactly a compliment here, either, so maybe it's just a difference in degree...

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  8. I'm not sure I've ever been accused of skulking, let alone heard it being used verbally. I think if that happened to me I would laugh, at first.

    Also, off-topic, that $15 writing course that I signed up for thanks to you, has been a great motivator. I'm actually writing something that has nothing to do with the assignments per se. The first day's assignment was to describe your own death. This unhinged me. I refused to write about it but I couldn't stop thinking about it as an assignment. And then I started writing about something that I wanted to write about, which I guess, is the aim of the course. So, total success. Or, soon success. I have grand plans for it as a short story. If/when something happens with it, I'll be sure to let ye know.

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  9. You know, I was just wondering today if I would hear the result of your enrollment, Sheiler.

    That's fantastic. I have pretty much ignored the course since about day two, but I did get a great start on something that I'm now working on through the Nanowrimo challenge. I hope I'll go back and look at the other twenty-eight or so emails, but you're right, getting one good project out of it is enough.

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  10. I had grand intentions for joining in the Nanowrimo challenge but didn't. Blame it on the short story.

    Every time I see the term 'Nanowrimo' I always see, at first, 'Nimby'.

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  11. One of my friend's has thought till recently that it was called Nanorhino.This is even after she successfully completed it.

    I think writing the short story is plenty. If you want a reader when you're done I'd be happy to give it a look. My email is right on the profile.

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