I put a spell on you...

[venta]

Gosh. It's ages since we've had one of these. Words I use which no one else knows...

[Poll #1724258]

A perfectly respectable definition can be found here.

[Poll #1724259]

Edit: supplementary question. If it didn't mean what you thought, what did you think it meant?

Comments

[hoiho.livejournal.com]

Round these parts that's called a "skelf".

[venta.livejournal.com]

Where, if you'll pardon me asking, are those parts? I don't recognise the bridge...

[hoiho.livejournal.com]

Central Scotland. (The bridge is the Forth Bridge.)

[venta.livejournal.com]

Aha.

Are you a native of those parts? I'd always assumed you were from a more, er, penguiny sort of area.

[shrydar.livejournal.com]

I recognised the bridge :) (I lived in Gateshead for a number of years, and occasionally ventured further north)

[venta.livejournal.com]

In that case you've lived far enough north to get spelks in your fingers!

Then again, maybe you started off so amazingly south that you'd take longer than usual to get acclimatised :)

[shrydar.livejournal.com]

Possibly so :)

Besides which, there were considerably more Southerners round the office than cleavable pieces of wood.

[bopeepsheep.livejournal.com]

Skelb, scowe, splice... Lots of words for it! I didn't know skelf, but I do know skelb and spelk.

[venta.livejournal.com]

No, I've never heard skelf either and I like it! Your scots dictionary reckons it's also "a sliver", or can be used for a thin person which is exactly what it sounds like.

[zotz]

Ah. Yes. I never heard spelk, but I was sure there was something similar I'd forgotten. That was it.

[lanfykins.livejournal.com]

I adore your icon. Though I preferred the road bridge. Coming at it from the north, it looms up between the hills, appearing and disappearing behind them like some kind of ominous giant monster peeking out at you until suddenly you come out from the hills and there it is, looming above you.

...I was an odd child...

[ylla.livejournal.com]

My favourite, in spite of its bad name, is the Tay rail bridge, because of the way it curves round to let you see where you came from :)

[lanfykins.livejournal.com]

I am now having an almost overwhelming urge to reread William Topaz McGonagall's finest work on The Tay Bridge Disaster :)

[marjory.livejournal.com]

I was going to say that! My (Fife) family all talk about skelfs (among other words which get funny looks down here).