Says someone at Reddit (with a photo of the gray noodle broth), and the discussion is less about why the egg turned things gray than about that unusual verb: quirl.
The OED says the word is a regionalism of the American south that somehow developed out of "curl" and "coil." I would think "twirl" and "swirl" and "whirl" also played a part. And why not "squirrel"? What's up with "-irl"? Why does it suggest a spiraling movement? There's also "furl" and "circle."
Of course, the most important "-irl" word is "girl." Did you know there is a verb "to girl" in Scottish English? It means "To thrill or tingle, esp. with fear or in reaction to a harsh noise."
But back to "quirl." Here are some of the OED's examples:
1823 Sat. Evening Post (Philadelphia) 4 Jan. 1/5 More than once I have seen an infant nearly suffocated by a cat quirling upon the face of the little sufferer....
1910 Anaconda (Montana) Standard 18 Dec. ii. 5/3 Querling his moustache to show that our interview was deceased....
1969 in J. A. Burrison Storytellers: Folktales & Legends from South (1989) iii. 73/1 It looked like a dog, only its body was as long as a rail and its tail was querled over its back and it had a head on it like a bulldog.
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As to the possibility that individual sounds are related to meanings, it is a source of ongoing debate among linguists. Lots of "liquid or airy movement" words have the fl sound, for example. Many languages have "-a" as a feminine ending (and no, not just Indo-European words.) But whether these are reliable and rise above the level of chance is harder to nail down enough that they cannot be denied.
I don’t really think it’s that big of a leap from the “cu” of “curled” to the “qui” Of “quirled.” It’s essentially the same word with alternative spelling and pronunciation.
- Rafe
Quirl - Noun/Pronoun - A tree-dwelling furbearing male rodent on puberty-blockers and hormones that would really really like to show your children its candied-walnut filled van down by the river.
There's something going on with the twistiness associated with vowel-rl combination. Think gnarl and whorl. Non-native speakers often have difficulty with the r and l sounds. Could word meanings like this somehow arise from the complexity of vocalization?
I just remembered "snarled" as another vowel-rl combination in another word connoting a sort of turning complexity.
Morphology of English is a favorite of mine! English word structure has connections through the structure of words (not always spelling). The base morpheme often has a relation to a type of movement or state. One game I play is taking the base as Althouse did and figuring out the related meaning. Irl and url indicate a movement like water, graceful and undulating. Try any Angelo Saxon base. Example: op- bop, crop, hop, stop, pop expresses short cutting or hitting motions and sounds like it .
Another example of morphemes are blends. GL in English very often denotes light. Glisten, glass, glow, gleam.
Dr. Suess approves.
So did anyone ever figure out why the noodle broth turned gray?
Furl and hurl. And 3-in-1 url.
skirl for bagpipes !! making ears ring and head spin?
Ampersand said...
There's something going on with the twistiness associated with vowel-rl combination. Think gnarl and whorl. Non-native speakers often have difficulty with the r and l sounds. Could word meanings like this somehow arise from the complexity of vocalization?
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don't forget >> girl >> twistiest of all?
There is now a dictionary of black English words. Their very own tribal language. This time written.
You already said furl. Sorry. My head's awhirl.
Anyone mention knurl or nurl? Rusty?
There is nothing quite as exquisite as quirled quail eggs.
$ etym.sh | grep '^[a-z]*irl '
girl ME girle = young person of either sex
thirl OE thurh = through
whirl ON hvirfla = to turn about
skirl OSw skr{a-e}lla = to rattle
twirl OHG dweran = to stir
birl OE beran = to carry
skirl OE scrallettan = to sound loudly
whirl OHG wirbil = whirlwind
twirl Norw tvirla = to twirl
thirl OE thyrel = hole
thirl OE thyrel =
whirl ON hvirfla = to whirl
virl ME virole =
birl OE byrele = cup-bearer
whirl ME whirlen =
whirl OE hweorfan = to turn
If a Scotsman said it, would it have 2 or 3 syllables?
https://youtu.be/AC__o1UxDl8
We can go round and around but why quarrel?
I also want to know why the gray.
Er, uh... "Quirl" is German for "whisk" (noun). It's as simple as that.
It can be used as a verb, "quirlen" and as a gerund, "Das Quirlen". I wouldn't be surprised to find it has Latin roots. "Quirn" is a latin word (it means a handmill for grinding wheat. Every squad (Contubernum) of eight Roman soldiers would be issued one. Essentially, a quirn is just two stones between which one grinds the wheat into flour. The motion used to grind is similar to using a whisk... so I would not be surprised to see them share a common root.
One of the more difficult German words for me to pronounce. Certainly more difficult to pronounce than "Eichhoernchen" which was used to test for infiltrators in WW2. Americans asked suspects "who married Betty Grable?" or "who won the World Series?". The Germans just asked them to say "Eichhoernchen". Or so I've been told.
- Goetz von Berlichingen (nee livermoron)
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