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07/12/2004 Entry: "Stemwinder"

Learned of a new word today: stemwinder, meaning a rousing speech. Here's why.

Before [Adrien Philippe's] invention, watches were wound just the same way as clocks, using a key. This was an awkward procedure and wise watch owners kept the key on their fob chain to be sure of not losing it.

Oh really? Now I have to go learn another new word: fob. I feared that was some kind of racial slur, but no; it is merely a vest pocket.

Anyhow, the text continues:

M Philippe added a knurled knob attached to a rod (or stem), which was permanently connected to the spring mechanism, making it much easier to wind.

Now that is fascinating. Now I have to go look up knurled. That means gnarled or milled, having multiple small grooves, as in the grooves on the side of the ol' watch stem, if you get my drift. They put those grooves in the edges of coins to deter shifty sneaky folks from sneakily shaving trace amounts off metal off the coins.

And to think that I thought stemwinding refers to apples. As children, we would wind the apple stem and go down the alphabet. The letter you called when the stem comes off is the initial of the name of the person you would marry. If it were true, everyone would be married to someone whose name starts with "g". This reminds me of Frank Zappa, who of course married Gail.

Replies: 2 comments

Thanks, Just Passing Through...

That link is the same link at the top of the post...

Posted by Daev @ 08/15/2004 07:56 PM CST

You might want to check this out:

http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-ste3.htm

Posted by Just Passing Through @ 07/31/2004 04:36 PM CST