Word To Use Today: nogging.

They don't have nogging in Scotland and New Zealand. There they have dwang*.

They're both lovely words, but they could hardly be more different: the warmth and comfort of nogging opposed to the racy, almost extra-terrestrial dwang.

What are they? 

They can be the short horizontal bits of wood that go to make up a section of the frame of a building, or else they can be the brickwork that fills the gaps between the wooden bits of a half-timbered house.

Stuff like this:


Kilbarchan Scout Hall. The nogging is just being fitted. Photo by scott tennant

and this:



and this:



What do you think is best for its job?  Nogging or dwang?

Personally, it'd break my heart to have to do without either of them.

Word To Use Today: nogging (or dwang). A nog is a block of wood, perhaps from the Middle English knagge, a peg. The Dutch word dwang means force.

*Except around Auckland, where they have noggin. 

They don't have nogging in America, either: there it's blocking, which is a perfectly good word, if not so picturesque.