mulet/mullet and kankedort

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

On Thu, Oct 18, 2012 at 1:46 PM, Luanne von Schneidemesser
<lvonschn at wisc.edu> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Luanne von Schneidemesser <lvonschn at WISC.EDU>
> Subject:      mulet/mullet and kankedort
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Can anyone help on the following request, from a WI historian/writer?
> We aren't finding any helpful information at DARE.
>
>   Do you know the word "mulet"?  I'm reading an account of an incident
> in a Wisconsin logging camp from around 1873 and the following sentence
> occurs:
>
> "The mission of the newcomers was usually to mulet (sic) the gullible
> woodsman in one way or another."

Is it possible that the word is mulct? Perhaps the letter c was
printed imperfectly.

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/mulct

mulct  (mlkt)
n.
A penalty such as a fine.
tr.v. mulct·ed, mulct·ing, mulcts
1. To penalize by fining or demanding forfeiture.
2. To acquire by trickery or deception.
3. To defraud or swindle.
[From Middle English multen, to fine, from Latin multre, mulctre, from
mulcta, fine.]

Garson

>
> And the husband (a botanist) of a friend would like to know more about
> "kankedort".  It seems that it isn't /Obs. /as the OED implies. He's
> aware of the basics that come up on a google search, like
> http://www.kankedort.net/about.htm.
> He writes:
>
> About the only references we can find are from people researching the
> meaning of the word (beginning with Chaucer?).  It seems like no one
> really knows what it means, there is a lot of speculation, but no
> certainty.  If you want a recent reference, the word has been used in
> the title of a recent paper, in Madroño (a journal of Western North
> American Botany), Vol. 58(4) 267--272. 2011, by Genevieve K. Walden
> (grad student here) and R. Patterson.
>
> Here's the title page info for the article:
> NOMENCLATURAL KANKEDORTS IN PHACELIA
> (BORAGINACEAE: HYDROPHYLLOIDEAE)
> GENEVIEVE K. WALDEN AND ROBERT PATTERSON
> Department of Biology, San Francisco State University, 1600 Holloway Avenue,
> San Francisco, CA 94132
>
>
> Thanks.
>
> Luanne
>
> --
> Luanne von Schneidemesser
> Senior Editor/Distinguished Scientist
> /Dictionary of American Regional English/
> 608 265-0532
> http://dare.wisc.edu
> http://dare.news.wisc.edu/
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org