"turpentine cut" query
Mark A Mandel
mam at THEWORLD.COM
Mon Feb 11 04:03:54 UTC 2002
[Gerald Cohen]
#> A colleague has asked me about "turpentine cut"--it's a carpentry term
#> meaning a sloppy joining of two boards.
[Douglas G. Wilson]
#I think a turpentine cut SHOULD be a cut made in a [pine, etc.] tree for
#collection of turpentine. I speculate that the above sense is metaphoric,
#referring to a ragged slot or so. I can't find an example of this usage
#immediately.
I am no carpenter, even as an amateur, so the following may not be
reasonable. I thought on reading Gerald's question that perhaps a sloppy
joining would, under some circumstances, "bleed" resin from what should
be a tight junction.
-- Mark A. Mandel
Linguist at Large
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