Dreich is a Scots word. Skein is too but I think it’s borrowed from Gaelic.
Zarf is Arabic, and plash is Dutch.
Old English plæsc. Possibly cognate of, but not borrowed from Dutch plas (puddle)
I thought Scots is a Gaelic language. Am I missing something?
Scots is close enough to English that some scholars say it’s a dialect and others say it’s it’s own language.
A while back, a teenager wrote many of the articles on the Scots Wikipedia thinking it was just an accented English. It was a mess.
No, the two languages have separate roots. Gaelic is often called Scots Gaelic to distinguish it from Irish, though.
I thought a skein was a roll of wool
Rolled yarn is often referred to as a skein. I guess maybe it has two meanings, the posted one seems like it may be unpopular or archaic.
It has quite a lot of meanings
- A quantity of yarn, thread, etc. put up together in an oblong shape, after it is taken from the reel. A skein of cotton yarn is formed by eighty turns of the thread around a fifty-four inch reel.
- (figuratively) A web, a weave, a tangle.
- (zoology) The membrane of a fish ovary.
- (wagonmaking) A metallic strengthening band or thimble on the wooden arm of an axle.
- (zoology, UK, dialect, collective) A group of wild fowl (e.g. geese, goslings) when they are in flight.
- (sports) A winning streak.
- (radio, television, dated) A series created by a web (major broadcasting network).
In my experience a skein is a specific type of wound wool. It’s looped and then twisted and folded over. You can’t knit from a skein, you have to reball it first.
Oddly enough, that gathering of geese in flight is a wedge. When they aren’t in formation, but still in flight, they are skein or a team. When flying close together, a plump. On the ground, a flock or gaggle and in water, just a gaggle.
Ducks in the water you ask. A paddlington.
Unless they are close together. Then they’re a raft.And coots? A floatila apparently. Guessing only when they are in water.
A zarf is specifically the stand for a handleless coffee cup. It’s not a heat sleeve like the illustration.
Plash Speed
