Aaaarrrrrrggggghhhhhhhhhhh...
...splut thing.
Luckily there are other sorts of quarry about. For a start, a quarry can be more or less anything you're trying to find. For a hedgehog that'll include slugs, and for a robin it'll include worms.
Photo by Rasbak.
Mm. Nice slippery slurpy worms. Yum!
Even easier, a quarry is a square or diamond shape. This is why quarry tiles are so called, and not because the clay of which they are made has come from a quarry, though it probably will have done.
Lastly, a quarry can be a small diamond-shaped pane of glass:
Photo by Kenneth Allen
or a square-sectioned cross-bow bolt.
Right. So I'm going out to see if I can find a worm, then.
Good hunting!
Spot the frippet: quarry. The big hole word comes from the Latin quadrāre, to make square; the catching prey word comes from the Old French cuireé, what is placed on the hide [of an animal] ie entrails, from the Latin corium leather, probably with a bit of the French coree, entrails, mixed into the word; and the square shape comes from the Old French quarré, from the Latin quadrus, square.
In surveillance and espionage terminology, a quarry is also the subject of the surveillance, although I think it's very old-fashioned and I didn't ever hear any police or PIs use it during my career. "Subject" was the generally used term, which isn't nearly as fun.
ReplyDeleteI used to think it was a splinter, as in:
DeleteO come thou branch of Jesse draw/The quarry from the lion's paw.
I think it was the branch thing did it. And Androcles.
Still, it is quite Christmassy.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emma-a-a-nuel....