Talk:spurling
Add topicLatest comment: 3 months ago by This, that and the other in topic RFV discussion: September 2023–October 2024
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Obsolete bird name Jewle V (talk) 19:20, 25 September 2023 (UTC)
- Webster 1828 had it as a smelt. See sparling. DCDuring (talk) 01:27, 26 September 2023 (UTC)
- Both of the quotes so far have it as meaning "smelt ('fish')", one of the definitions of sparling. DCDuring (talk) 01:49, 26 September 2023 (UTC)
- Two of the quotes are from reference works that provide definitions, but spurling is not a definendum in either but is used in the definiens. There are at least half a dozen mentions in Google Books, too. I don't think we can delete the smelt definition without consulting OED. I don't have so much confidence for the bird name ("a tern"). DCDuring (talk) 02:02, 26 September 2023 (UTC)
- Spurling is often defined as an alternative spelling of sparling. DCDuring (talk) 02:17, 26 September 2023 (UTC)
- OED has the "smelt" sense, which is probably citeable as all of sparling, sperling, spirling and spurling. There is no "tern" sense there though. There is an entry for sparling-fowl, which may not meet our CFI, but it is not a tern. Instead it is defined as "goosander".
- EDD does have the "tern" sense as a Lancashire dialect word. In fact it specifies three senses referring to three different tern species, but each sense is cited to the same book (Swainson). This, that and the other (talk) 05:41, 27 September 2023 (UTC)
RFV-failed, but I'm opening a second RFV for the "young salmon" sense at sparling. This, that and the other (talk) 05:30, 18 October 2024 (UTC)