[TheForge] Coak

[CraigSchaefer]

Who are you hiding from? 
  
And if you're on this list, you're already worse than a drug mfgr. 
  
  
Craig 

----- Original Message -----

From: "Bruce ." <freemab222 at gmail.com> 
To: "Blacksmithing List Sponsored by ABANA" <theforge at mailman.qth.net> 
Sent: Tuesday, November 10, 2015 5:01:38 AM 
Subject: [TheForge] Coak 

I find myself  cringing every time I compose a message in which I need to 
name that well-known product of partial combustion of coal that shares a 
name with a soft drink from Atlanta and, in particular, with a street 
drug.  I really don't want my every email to be subject to scrutiny by the 
authorities.  (A mild paranoia is the sign of a healthy mind.) 

Spellings are standardized these days, but that wasn't always true.  Hence, 
exerting a small bit of poetic (?) license, I tried an alternative spelling 
(see subject line).  Of course, I wouldn't insist that anyone ELSE use this 
spelling, I'm mainly interested whether you'd recognise the meaning.  Think 
"Cook Coal to make Coak". 

Now if that novel spelling doesn't please you, one could use the old 
spelling, "colk", which the "Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology" 
(Doesn't EVERYBODY have a copy of that?) lists our current spelling as 
first recorded in the 17th century, and probably alternative spelling of 
the word (as opposed to a distinct word) which was first recorded in the 
14th century. 

Your thoughts? 

Bruce 
NJ 
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