The 2010 Winter Olympic Games are history. Does this mean I have to wait four more years to watch curling on television? Sure, right now I think I’ve seen enough, but four years can be a long time.
There are many good things about Olympic competition. For people living in the Northern Hemisphere, the winter version allows us to still appreciate ice and snow even when most of us have had it with this season and are ready for spring.
Winter sports also have contributed a few terms to our general vocabulary, such as “to skate” through a situation or to run into tough “sledding.”
But the only two that really piqued my interest are “curling” (there it is again!) and “puck,” as in hockey.
The verb “curl” is from the Middle English “curlen,” which evolved from “crullen” — “to curl, bend, twist” — and the earlier “crul” — “curly.” It’s probably Germanic in origin.
Some people have naturally curly hair. Some who don’t use “curling irons,” “curlpaper” and “curlers” to create ringlets and waves. (At this point, I’m required to mention “Curly,” born Jerome Horwitz, one of the Three Stooges — naturally, the one with virtually no hair at all.)
There are diseases that make the leaves of plants curl, which is not a good thing. Nor is the informal “curl up,” meaning “to collapse, break down.”
But some of us also curl up when we sit or lie down, and that’s OK — as long as we can straighten when we need to.
Curling the upper lip is generally a sign of contempt or scorn, but it certainly worked for Elvis.
And curls also are an effective exercise for keeping muscles in shape.
As for “puck,” the hockey version comes from the dialectical verb “puck,” meaning “to strike.” Webster’s says it’s akin to “poke,” from the Middle English “poken,” which came from Middle Dutch or Low German.
That’s the “poke” we use in such phrases as “poke a hole in,” “take a poke at,” “poke your head out a window” and “poke fun at.”
It also can mean “to live or move slowly or lazily,” reflected in “slowpoke” and “poky.”
However, it’s unknown whether it’s the origin of the slang “pokey” (sometimes spelled without the “e”) for “a jail.”
It’s also the origin of “poker,” that rod used for poking fires.
And that means it’s probably related to “poker,” the card game. However, that’s only if its nearest ancestor is the German “pochspiel,” literally, “game of defiance.” That apparently hasn’t been nailed down, but I wouldn’t bet against it.
