I come across some of the oddest words in my line of work. Actually, the first one isn't terribly odd at all, it's just an occupation-specific term I hadn't known. I'd always called a maker of violins or guitars a "violin-maker" or a "guitar-maker." Apparently, the correct term for both of these, and for any crafter of stringed instruments, is luthier, derived from the Old French word for lute, which is a precursor to many modern wooden stringed instruments.
My other word is a little, um, odder, and a good example of how I get what I deserve when I browse the dictionary instead of just looking up my work and going away. (Come to think, this is one of the drawbacks of an otherwise great site like OneLook-- it doesn't let me browse and learn new words incidentally.) Anyway, the word in question is jumart. Fine, you say. Bull and mare. Right, impossible cross, yadda yadda. Well, thanks to the miracles of modern science, probably not so impossible anymore, but... why would anyone try in the first place? (Of course, why would people breed labradoodles, one might ask?) But.... I dunno. What would it look like? Unfair. Now I have jumarts on the brain.
Posted by gris at October 4, 2004 05:55 PM