oakum

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English

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WOTD – 23 July 2023

Etymology

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PIE word
*úd
PIE word
*ǵómbʰos
Oakum with tools used for caulking.

From Late Middle English okom, okome (“oakum”) [and other forms],[1] from Old English ācumba (“oakum”, literally “that which has been combed out, off-combings”) [and other forms], from ācemban (“to comb out”),[2] from Proto-Germanic *uz- (from Proto-Indo-European *ud-s-, *ūd- (“out; up”), or *h₂ew- (“away from, off”)) + *kambijaną (“to comb”) (ultimately from *ǵómbʰos (“row of teeth; tooth; peg”), *ǵembʰ- (“nail; tooth; to gnaw through; to pierce”)).[3] See also out and comb.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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oakum (countable and uncountable, plural oakums) (chiefly historical)

  1. Coarse fibres separated by hackling from flax or hemp when preparing the latter for spinning.
    Synonyms: hards, tow
  2. Fibres chiefly obtained by untwisting old rope, which are used to caulk or pack gaps between boards of wooden ships and joints in masonry and plumbing, and sometimes for dressing wounds.
    • 1666 June 14 (date written; Gregorian calendar), Samuel Pepys, Mynors Bright, transcriber, “June 4th, 1666”, in Henry B[enjamin] Wheatley, editor, The Diary of Samuel Pepys […], volume V, London: George Bell & Sons […]; Cambridge: Deighton Bell & Co., published 1895, →OCLC, page 309:
      [W]ho should it be but Mr. Daniel, all muffled up, and his face as black as the chimney, and covered with dirt, pitch, and tarr, and powder, and muffled with dirty clouts, and his right eye stopped with okum. He is come last night at five o'clock from the fleete, with a comrade of his that hath endangered another eye.
    • 1740 March 18 (date written; Gregorian calendar), W. Richardson, “A Letter from Jamaica, by the Author of that in p. 144”, in Sylvanus Urban [pseudonym; Edward Cave], editor, The Gentleman’s Magazine: Or, Monthly Intelligencer, London: […] F. Cave, jun., […], published June 1740, →OCLC, page 300, column 1:
      It vvas reſolved hovvever to proceed on our Voyage, vvhich vve did for ten Days, in hopes by the Oakums ſvvelling the Leak might grovv leſs; but to our great Surpriſe, after very hard VVeather near Porto Bello, and not being able to reach it, it increaſed to double the Quantity.
    • 1840, R[ichard] H[enry] D[ana], Jr., chapter XXVI, in Two Years before the Mast. […] (Harper’s Family Library; no. CVI), New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers […], →OCLC, pages 287–288:
      [A]s it rained nearly all the time, awnings were put over the hatchways, and all hands sent down between the decks, where we were at work, day after day, picking oakum, until we got enough to caulk the ship all over, and to last the whole voyage.
    • 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, “A Right Whale Killed”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC, page 362:
      [N]ow that I think of it, he's always wanting oakum to stuff into the toes of his boots.
    • 1856 January 17, “Douglas v. Watson”, in Chauncey Smith, editor, English Reports in Law and Equity: […], volume XXXIV, Boston, Mass.: Little, Brown and Company, →OCLC, page 448:
      On the 24th of November, the plaintiff wrote the following reply, addressing it to George Havelock:– "Yours containing order for oakums came duly to hand. As it will take three or four days before the white oakum arrives here, we cannot till after that time supply the same. All will be forwarded together. The price of white and brown oakum will be 30s. per cwt. Yours, &c., W. H. Douglas and Co."
    • 1912, “The Murray Roofing Tile Company”, in Sweet’s Catalogue of Building Construction for 1912 […], New York, N.Y.: The Architectural Record Co., →OCLC, page 507:
      Shingle Tiles make a Leak-Proof roof without the use of cements and spun oakums.
    • 1983, Peter Ackroyd, “4 October 1900”, in The Last Testament of Oscar Wilde, London, New York, N.Y.: Penguin Books, published 1993, →ISBN, page 154:
      My eyesight began to fail, from the strain of picking oakum in my cell.
    • 2016 June 7, Yaa Gyasi, “Kojo”, in Homegoing, New York, N.Y.: Alfred A[braham] Knopf, published June 2017, →ISBN, page 116:
      Earlier that morning he had gotten the oakum ready for the deck, soaking the hemp in pine tar.

Hyponyms

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Derived terms

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Translations

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See also

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References

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  1. ^ “ōkom, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
  2. ^ “oakum, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
  3. ^ Compare “oakum, n.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, September 2022.

Further reading

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Anagrams

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