Monday 7 December 2009

morkin

The more I try to find words I've never heard of, the more I feel guilty that I don't already know them. This one, for example, is so small and unassuming that I feel sure I should already know it:

morkin n an animal that has died by accident [Origin from Anglo-French mortekine, from Latin morticina (fem adj) carrion, from mors death] Chambers, 1998

I wonder if there's also a word that specifies "an animal that died of natural causes" or "an animal that died under suspicious circumstances"? Was it the rabbit, in the hedgerow, with the revolver?

4 comments:

  1. So, if you found a cat or hare that had died by accident they would not only be morkins but malkins/mawkins (another archaic term for those animals). Yes when it comes to language there is no limit to how geeky I can be :D

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  2. Interesting - hey, isn't malkin from Shakespeare? Isn't the three witches' cat in MacBeth called Greymalkin or similar? According to my Chambers malkin can also mean "a dirty or lewd woman". Nice.

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  3. Mor´kin
    n. 1. A beast that has died of disease or by mischance.
    26 minutes ago · Like
    He stands at the tower of the Moon, looking North to the downs of Shadows.
    It is dawn and Morkin is utterly invigorated. The Ice Fear is quite cold. Morkin is utterly bold.
    25 minutes ago · Like
    [Akin to Sw. murken putrefied, Icel. morkinn putrid.]
    24 minutes ago · Like
    [Orgelpfeife] bassoon blotter
    22 minutes ago · Like
    There is a lot of history behind this, but needless to say it was my nick-name at the time. In my youth I had long unkempt hair and a very small physique so some people saw fit to ironically name me after a barbarian. The nickname stuck with me for years after until I decided that it didn't suit me any more. Some of my very old friends still call me by it and some people who I have met only know me by this name and no other.
    19 minutes ago · Like
    (obsolete)
    18 minutes ago · Like
    Morkin passed away in Vancouver, B.C. on Sunday, November 4, 2012 after a brave but devastating battle with cancer. will be keenly missed not only by her immediate family and siblings, but also by her nieces and nephews, and many others in the Morkin clan. struggles over the past two years, a period in which she strengthened her grasp on our hearts even as she was slowly but surely ebbing away from us. Morkin was many things to many people - a ravishing beauty, a loving sister, an avid cyclist, a crazy and indulgent aunt, a voracious reader, a fitness maniac, a restless soul, a devoted teacher, and a proud grandmother. She brought passion and zeal into everything she did, from parenting to scrabble to political discussions. Morkin lived in Calgary from 1962 until she followed Craig to Korea in 2000
    16 minutes ago · Like
    This web page shows only a small excerpt of our Morkin research. Another 317 words(23 lines of text) covering the years 1600, 1635, 1688, 1689, 1690, 1692,
    11 minutes ago · Like
    Bókavinir Markarinnar hittast á mánudögum. Mörkin sögn Gísla Páls Pálssonar, framkvæmdastjóra Grundar Markarinnar ehf er það mikið ánægjuefni að allar íbúðirnar séu nú gegnar út.
    9 minutes ago · Like
    (Scottish)
    the skin of a dead sheep or lamb
    8 minutes ago · Like
    Morkin
    suff3r-until-your-d3ad.tumblr.com/
    I am a 14 year old girl, I love sports and I spend half of my time with my friends. I love food....so yeah, follow me bitchess(:
    6 minutes ago · Like
    firstly Morkin must be killed, for as long as Morkin is alive the game will continue, and secondly he must subdue the armies of the Free. He can do this by either killing Luxor the Moonprince or conquering Xajorkith, the capital citadel of the Free lands.
    4 minutes ago · Like
    The α- and β-myosin genes extend over 51 kb on chromosome 14 in human and 11 in mouse separated by about 4.5 kb of intergenic sequence. They are located in tandem in the order of their expression during development. Transcription of each gene is independently controlled but coordinately regulated. During each embryogenesis, the β-MHC gene is expressed as part of the cardiac myogenic program under the control of NKX-2.5, MEF-2C, and GATA-4/5/6. After birth, thyroid hormone induces expression of α-MHC mRNA and inhibits expression of the β-MHC gene.

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