"turpentine cut" query

[Thom Harrison]

I have seen turpentine cuts in pine trees.  They make a jagged V in which
the slashes do not quite meet at the point, so that the tree juice runs down
into a bucket at the bottom.

That would certainly make a good metaphor for sloppy joining.

Thom


-----Original Message-----
From: Mark A Mandel [mailto:mam at THEWORLD.COM]
Sent: Sunday, February 10, 2002 11:04 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: "turpentine cut" query


        [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