I ought to be in bed

[conuly]

and I'm going just now, but I have to share two words I learned just now: kolk and riprap. I probably will never have a chance to say "kolk" again, but, as I live in a city of islands it is very possible for me to take walks that allow me to casually walk by riprap and refer to it as such! I actually do this already, except I've never had a specialized word for those rocks before!

...occasionally, I have cause to identify very strongly with Tiffany Aching.

There was a lot of mist around, but a few stars were visible overhead and there was a gibbous moon in the sky. Tiffany knew it was gibbous because she’d read in the Almanack that gibbous meant what the moon looked like when it was just a bit fatter than half full, and so she made a point of paying attention to it around those times just so that she could say to herself: “Ah, I see the moon’s very gibbous tonight....”

It’s possible that this tells you more about Tiffany than she would want you to know.

Anyway, riprap is now my second favorite rock related word, immediately after "chossy" but before "scree".

Comments

[conuly]

I just love the etymology of the word chossy so, so much.

[marahmarie]

What is its etymology? Can't find it in Google.

[conuly]

Apparently there was a fad for pronouncing words phonetically (as there periodically is), so "chaos" came out as "choss". Once regularized, chaotic became chossy. This fad died out quickly enough, but the word chossy remained among rock climbers to refer to a particular problem they encounter

[marahmarie]

Yeah, I saw the chaos theory, so to speak, but can't trace it to a country of origin, was what I meant. :)