Thing To Do Today: fankle.

Scotland has a fine fierce way with a word, many regions of the kingdom speaking with a well-directed force often lacking in my own soft southern speech. From bahookie (the buttocks) to yocker (a stone only just small enough to throw) a Scot's speech is not to be ignored.

And so to the endearing fankle. Mostly nowadays it's used as a noun: people get into a fankle - into a mess, or a muddle, or confused. Anything from a speech to a business or an attempt to put on a pair of tights can get into a fankle.

But fankle is a verb, too, meaning to tangle. A kitten might fankle a ball of wool, or an angler his line. A restless night might fankle the bedclothes.

I suppose fankle means pretty much the same thing as tangle, but it has just that extra edge, that sharpness, that vividness that...that...

...but I'm getting into a fankle, myself, here.

Ah well. 

Mission accomplished, eh.

Thing To Do Today: get in a fankle. This word comes from fank, a coil of rope, from the Dutch vangen, to catch.