Main      Site Guide    
Message Forum
Re: Let's go scudding!
Posted By: Issachar, on host 66.162.201.180
Date: Thursday, January 13, 2005, at 17:08:18
In Reply To: Let's go scudding! posted by Howard on Thursday, January 13, 2005, at 10:26:18:

> Scudding. That's an interesting word. It's a pity, but only clouds are allowed to go scudding. Authors like to say things like, "The next morning the surf was up and there were scudding clouds crossing the sky."
>
> Scudding clouds are low clouds that move rather quickly. That's bad news for sailors, so you know the author is planning to send some of his characters to sea at a time when they should have stayed ashore.
>
> If you check your dictionary, you may find that scudding is a step in preparing hides for tanning, but I don't want to go into that. Cloud scudding is much more interesting.
>
> As always, I wonder about the origin of the term.
> It probably goes back to British sailors in the time when the England ruled the seas. But could there be other uses for the term? How about sledders scudding down a hill in the snow? Or traffic scudding on the Interstate? Or maybe war planes scudding in on a bombing run?
>
> Maybe someday we'll all know how to scud like those lucky clouds.
> Howard

I'm such a child of my time. The only "scud" I was previously aware of is the type of missile made famous during the Gulf War. Thanks for providing my generation with a newly expanded vocabulary.

Iss "not a scud stud" achar

Replies To This Message

Post a Reply

RinkChat Username:
Password:
Email: (optional)
Subject:
Message:
Link URL: (optional)
Link Title: (optional)

Make sure you read our message forum policy before posting.