[Ads-l] logging term "barber chair" (UNCLASSIFIED)

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

Title: Random House Historical Dictionary of American Slang
Volume I: A-G
Editor: J. E. Lighter

[Begin excerpt - double-check of OCR errors]
barber chair n. Logging, a stump to which an upright slab of the
felled tree remains attached. Also as v. (see 1974 quot.). 1938-41 in
Mencken Amer. Lang. Supp. II 758. 1956 Sorden & Ebert Logger's 1 [ref.
to a1925]: Barber-chair. A stump with part of the tree still on it due
to the tree splitting when falling. 1958 McCulloch Woods Words 7:
Barber chair—a. A tree which is split up the trunk in falling, leaving
the split portion on the stump, instead of breaking through cleanly to
the undercut, b. The act of making a tree into a barber chair.
. . .
[End excerpt]


Title: The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English
Volume A-I
Editors: Tom Dalzell and Terry Victor
https://books.google.com/books?id=4YfsEgHLjboC&q=%22barber+chair%22#v=snippet&q=%22barber%20chair%22&f=false

[Begin excerpt]
barber chair noun
in logging, the stump left from a poorly cut tree, which in falling
leaves an upright large splinter US, 1941

It is poor cutting if “barber chairs” are made and butts are very
irregular. — A. Koroleff, Woodcutter's Handbook, p. 7/2, 1944
[End excerpt]

Green’s Dictionary of Slang does not seem to have an entry for "barber chair".

Garson

On Wed, Jul 31, 2019 at 5:35 PM MULLINS, WILLIAM D (Bill) CIV USARMY
CCDC AVMC (USA) <0000099bab68be9a-dmarc-request at listserv.uga.edu>
wrote:
>
> CLASSIFICATION: UNCLASSIFIED
>
> A friend on Facebook who knows I antedate things recently asked me about the logging term "barber chair".
>
> OED has 1950 for the noun, and 1966 for the verb.
>
> barber chair n.;  Forestry.
> A chair-shaped stump left after a tree is felled, usually because of failure to undercut the trunk far enough; an incident during felling in which such a stump is formed.
>
> verb
> transitive. To fell (a tree) such that it splits up the trunk, leaving a chair-shaped stump.
> Also intransitive of a tree: to split during felling leaving a chair-shaped stump.
>
> This is antedatable:
>
> noun:
>
> Escambia MI _Escambia Daily Press_ 14 Feb 1946 p 2 col 2
> "Another familiar woods term is the 'barber chair'.  Hardwood timber, when improperly notched before sawing, pulls long slivers from the falling tree.  These slivers project upward from the stump, giving it the appearance of a chair."
>
> verb:
>
> Klamath Falls OR _Evening Herald_ 14 May 1941 p. 2 col 7
> "Krick claimed that two days before the discharge they had 'barber-chaired' a fir tree due to a high wind at the time but the scaler had not complained."
>
>
>
> CLASSIFICATION: UNCLASSIFIED
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org