Monday 1 February 2010

wankle

wankle (dialect) adj unstable, unsteady; changeable; not to be depended on. [Origin from Old English wancol; of Germanic origin] Chambers, 1998

Brilliant. Not only is it a great word but this is definitely one I think I can insert into my active vocabulary. I feel like I want it to be a noun instead of an adjective though - the example below feels wrong. I keep thinking of it as a word like "fickle" in terms of audible comparison.

Example:

I went to the Poetry Live For Haiti reading on Saturday. Gordon Brown went too. He gave a speech at the start but then only stayed for the first poet's reading, ducking out straight after Dannie Abse finished. He is a wankle man, at least when it comes to poetry.

1 comment:

  1. Great word! I'm gonna do my best to reintroduce this into common vocabulary too. That said, I'll probably change my mind: I'm pretty wankle.

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