Apr. 7th, 2016

[identity profile] prettygoodword.livejournal.com
spalting (SPAWL-ting) - n., wood coloration caused by fungi.


Especially the sorts of interesting coloration sought after by woodworkers -- see Wikipedia for examples and discussion. The wood so colored is said to be spalted. Not to be confused with a spalting knife, also called spalding knife, which is used in splitting codfish. First noticed in this sense in the 1970s, from US dialect (I'm not finding which region) to spalt meaning to split or splinter, or as an adjective, brittle/easily split -- compare German spalten, to split

---L.
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