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Mathprofrockstar, I ignore both - the word and the device - as much as possible, and that's usually pretty easy. I'm trying to imagine a conversation where I would need to use the word... perhaps reporting to a friend that I couldn't look at the clothes (upstairs in Tesco) as the 'thingy' was broken and I couldn't face the stairs. Yes, that's I
probably how I would tackle it, 'I couldn't look at winter jackets because the thingy was broken'. Sorted - well, where all my local friends are concerned!

Rosalind, any official pedant jobs seem to be highly treasured - and seldom advertised!

I wish the BBC had taken the opportunity to use the proper Shakespearian phrase "All that glisters" for the new jewellery making competition. Glisters is such an evocative word and glitter has at least one unfortunate connotation. Not watching anyway, can't stand the "comedian".

This morning I came across the word "weegee" in an 1840s nautical context -
"The mainmast was cut away, carrying the pump, spears, and weegee"
Apparently this rather nice word can refer to a Glaswegian, a person fully vaccinated against Covid-19 and boasts of it, a paticular photographer or a character in a Super Mario game. None of these seem terribly likely to be swept away in a hurricane, except perhaps the Glaswegian when presumably it would be Weegee.
There is no entry for this in the 502 (since this thread is about pedantry) page book "A Sea of Words", for lovers of Patrick O'Brian's books.
Any (polite) suggestions?

A month or so ago I took out a subscription to the complete OED online as there was a special offer of £90 for a year. Spellings vary but Weegie prevails; it does indeed mean a Glaswegian but that's all apparently. It seems to have been made popular by its occurrence in the 1993 novel Trainspotting.

So I'm very interested to know more about that 1840s nautical reference. I suspect weegee is a different word altogether but one so obscure it's never made it into a dictionary.

From the Nautical Dictionary...
“The pumps of a vessel are sometimes worked by
means of a contrivance called the vangee, or weegee, or wheejee; this usually consists of a barrel of an octagonal form turning back-wards and forwards on a pivot fixed in a frame between the pumps; the pump-spears are attached by arms to this barrel, and the pumps are worked by two brakes inserted into it at right angles to each other, with ropes attached to their ends for hauling upon”.

From personal experience, on a modern sailing yacht the ‘vang’ is a rope that applies downward force to the boom, more commonly known as a ‘kicker’ in smaller sailing boats. And I now wonder if vang derives from vangee? Vang in this usage is in Chambers...

malone

My favourite shop has a staircase, an escalator and one of Jigjag's lifts. No thingy...not yet anyway. The shop is being re-furbished and they are going to install a climbing device with the slogan "Travellator- How It's Not Grabbing You". Very catchy, but I hope it wont grab me after my previous experience.

Mathpro

I love the double "ll" especially in Wales, and that village with 4 of them, ...........llll..... - wow!

Orson- I have a great interest in Sunderland in the 1820s onwards, and in mariners, and bought the 5 booklet set issued by the Sunderland Antiquarian Society called "Sunderland Under Sail". This is by "Robinson Crusoe" aka Bracey Robson Wilson who wrote a series of articles for a Newcastle paper in his 80s, when blind. This was in the 1880s and the articles were transcribed and published by the SAS. Wilson was a master mariner and his memory is (was?) astounding.
In volume 4 Captain Wilson describes his 1843 voyage of the Cubana from Cuba to Swansea with a cargo of copper ore (considered dangerous, I don't know why. Shifting?). They encountered a hurricane and had to jury rig the masts. With only two sails, the pumps going the whole time and short on provisions they made it back to Swansea.

That's very interesting, rosalind, thank you. My great-great-grandfather was a master mariner who lived in Staithes and he used to sail to Denmark. In fact I come from a long line of ancestors who were involved in fish one way or another.

I also have a book called Memoirs of a Seafaring Man by William Spavens, first published in 1792. There is a glossary of nautical terms at the back but none of these words is listed. Weegee does seem to have been prevalent in the 1840s as the OED gives two quotations from that time.

Malone Rosalind

I have looked at a number of census records of my ancestors in the last few days. Some occupations were listed as "Ag lab" and "Ped ant". I assume they stand for Agricultural Labourer and Pedalling Anthologist.

jigjag

Or perhaps Foot soldier?

Thank you jono, that all ties up and explains spears as well.
I can't picture the arrangements but that doesn't matter, I'm pleased to know what the gear mentioned was.
When I was looking up "spears", I came across the verb to "sally", which means getting the crew to run from one side of the ship to the other in unison, in the hope of rocking it out of ice.