Saturday Word: Secateur

[theidolhands.livejournal.com]

sec·a·teur [ˌse-kə-ˈtər]:
origin: [1800s] French; sécateur, Latin; secare= "to cut"

noun
A fancy word for gardening sheers; scissors used for pruning, invented by the French.

Believe it or not, they were "controversial" in their time. Was it for cutting fingers off? No, the concern was entirely for the plants because it had a tendency to crush them before slicing. Eventually, modernizing sacateurs as well as observing which plants it was harmless to (wine growing or woody rose branches) improved its popularity significantly.

Sacateurs were at first made with toughened steel adorned with bone, horn or exotic wooden handles -- today's tool is more likely to be carbon with ergonomic handles coated in vinyl. Other modern advantages may include battery or electric powered devices. The British Empire and Japan have a particular interest in the innovation of this common garden item.

Comments

[prettygoodword.livejournal.com]

Huh!

[med_cat]

Very interesting, I never knew this word exists in English; it's in Russian, you see--must've come from the French, no doubt.

Thanks!

(also, you've a typo in the entry title)

[theidolhands.livejournal.com]

Thank you for being so polite about that correction. Typo has been fixed!

I heard this word on a BBC program, but I had not heard an American use it.

[med_cat]

You're welcome and yes, not heard or seen it here.

Thanks again, it's always interesting to encounter familiar words from Russian (which came from other languages) in English ;)