This may thench you
April 1, 2022 10:39 AM Subscribe
Why do we quench? It turns out the word is not simply a lexical anomaly but the last surviving remnant of a forgotten verb... an edifying explication by star-ajea. (threadreader)
I love these etymological palimpsests.
posted by adamrice at 10:57 AM on April 1, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by adamrice at 10:57 AM on April 1, 2022 [2 favorites]
Fascinating. I pretty much only associate the word with a technical and scary event involving superconductors. (I've seen it twice. I hope never to do so again.)
Also, I don't get the horse joke. You can absolutely drench a horse. It just requires a hose and either expertise or cruelty. [edit: actually, "make it" is kind of the point.]
posted by eotvos at 11:08 AM on April 1, 2022 [1 favorite]
Also, I don't get the horse joke. You can absolutely drench a horse. It just requires a hose and either expertise or cruelty. [edit: actually, "make it" is kind of the point.]
posted by eotvos at 11:08 AM on April 1, 2022 [1 favorite]
The original horse joke is "you can't make it drink", here "drench" as the synonym for "make drink".
posted by Nelson at 11:11 AM on April 1, 2022 [7 favorites]
posted by Nelson at 11:11 AM on April 1, 2022 [7 favorites]
Drenching a horse is making it drink, that’s why it’s often cruel.
So it’s a survival of the verb form!
posted by clew at 11:17 AM on April 1, 2022
So it’s a survival of the verb form!
posted by clew at 11:17 AM on April 1, 2022
I took a quick look through /usr/dict/words and brought back this list of words that are other candidates in the -ench world. In addition to the ones in the article: quink/quench drink/drench stink/stench wring/wrench.
bench
blench
clench
trench, entrench, retrench
wench
posted by Nelson at 11:17 AM on April 1, 2022
bench
blench
clench
trench, entrench, retrench
wench
posted by Nelson at 11:17 AM on April 1, 2022
Clench and clink I can see being related. And blench for blink (as in wince or flinch) definitely works. Wait, flinch... flink?!
posted by BlackLeotardFront at 11:24 AM on April 1, 2022
posted by BlackLeotardFront at 11:24 AM on April 1, 2022
Yeah the horse joke doesn't work specifically because the English-language horse world is one of the places obsolete vocabulary persists. Drenching a horse is a specific actual thing.
posted by restless_nomad at 11:33 AM on April 1, 2022 [5 favorites]
posted by restless_nomad at 11:33 AM on April 1, 2022 [5 favorites]
So, is this even remotely related to an explanation about why on "The Walking Dead," the caption says "Squelch" every time they put a blade through the head of a dead one, when clearly it should say 'Squish" ? I am deeply concerned by this.
posted by etaoin at 11:41 AM on April 1, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by etaoin at 11:41 AM on April 1, 2022 [1 favorite]
In the midst of his trying to cast them a wink,
In the midst of his laughter and glee,
Softly and suddenly did he instantly quink—
For the Snark was a Boojum, you see.
posted by phooky at 11:52 AM on April 1, 2022 [9 favorites]
I can't speak for the captioner of The Walking Dead, but I can say this:
squelch [ skwelch ] - verb (used with object) - to strike or press with crushing force; crush down; squash.
posted by Greg_Ace at 11:56 AM on April 1, 2022 [3 favorites]
squelch [ skwelch ] - verb (used with object) - to strike or press with crushing force; crush down; squash.
posted by Greg_Ace at 11:56 AM on April 1, 2022 [3 favorites]
I pretty much only associate the word with a technical and scary event involving superconductors. (I've seen it twice. I hope never to do so again.)
Yeah, we'll (accidentally) quench a 10 Tesla magnet every now and again. The burst disk sounds like a shotgun going off in the factory.
posted by rhamphorhynchus at 11:57 AM on April 1, 2022 [1 favorite]
Yeah, we'll (accidentally) quench a 10 Tesla magnet every now and again. The burst disk sounds like a shotgun going off in the factory.
posted by rhamphorhynchus at 11:57 AM on April 1, 2022 [1 favorite]
The headline took me too long.
So if drench is to make drink, thench is to make think?
Thanks, I hate it.
posted by The Monster at the End of this Thread at 12:04 PM on April 1, 2022 [1 favorite]
So if drench is to make drink, thench is to make think?
Thanks, I hate it.
posted by The Monster at the End of this Thread at 12:04 PM on April 1, 2022 [1 favorite]
"Yeah, boss, that private dick was back here this afternoon, raising a stink, asking all kinda questions. Want I should, uh, quink 'im?"
posted by phooky at 12:04 PM on April 1, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by phooky at 12:04 PM on April 1, 2022 [1 favorite]
I love shit like this. So often I'm confronted with a bit of the English language that makes me scratch my head and feel around for any logical reason it's so strange. I'm sure this will give me a lot to think about!
posted by rebent at 12:20 PM on April 1, 2022
posted by rebent at 12:20 PM on April 1, 2022
I got all the way to the end of the thread waiting for the reveal of what this mystery word was and I guess it turns out to be "quink" but it doesn't give a definition for it? It's just running us through basic verb conjugation but then skips out on the point? Do they actually tell us anywhere what quink meant? Because google doesn't even know? Is this a joke going over my head or ?
posted by bleep at 12:32 PM on April 1, 2022
posted by bleep at 12:32 PM on April 1, 2022
Answered my own question here it is it means "to make vanish" (I have lenched it)
posted by bleep at 12:35 PM on April 1, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by bleep at 12:35 PM on April 1, 2022 [2 favorites]
> it turns out to be "quink" but it doesn't give a definition for it?
I can't look at all the tweets because I don't have twitter and there are too many tweets for the preview to get there, but threader says this was tweeted :
> well, it sure would be cool if QUINK meant disappear, wouldn't it?
> I have great news:
> It did.
> cwincan - Wiktionary
> https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/cwincan
It did seem a little anticlimactic but I guess twitter isn't really the best medium for this sort of thing. In fact poor enough that threadreader exists.
posted by merlynkline at 1:40 PM on April 1, 2022 [1 favorite]
I can't look at all the tweets because I don't have twitter and there are too many tweets for the preview to get there, but threader says this was tweeted :
> well, it sure would be cool if QUINK meant disappear, wouldn't it?
> I have great news:
> It did.
> cwincan - Wiktionary
> https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/cwincan
It did seem a little anticlimactic but I guess twitter isn't really the best medium for this sort of thing. In fact poor enough that threadreader exists.
posted by merlynkline at 1:40 PM on April 1, 2022 [1 favorite]
No one's out here claiming the past participle of "milkshake duck" is something wild like "milkshake dacken," you know?)
Milkshaken duck, surely.
posted by darkstar at 2:57 PM on April 1, 2022 [1 favorite]
Milkshaken duck, surely.
posted by darkstar at 2:57 PM on April 1, 2022 [1 favorite]
I have wonderful memories of Quink from my 50’s childhood.
My dad used it a lot
posted by jan murray at 3:29 PM on April 1, 2022
My dad used it a lot
posted by jan murray at 3:29 PM on April 1, 2022
Quench is also what you do to heat treat metal by cooling it rapidly in oil or water.
So, is this even remotely related to an explanation about why on "The Walking Dead," the caption says "Squelch" every time they put a blade through the head of a dead one, when clearly it should say 'Squish" ? I am deeply concerned by this.
Regionalism maybe? Squelch denotes a much different sound than squish in my mind.
posted by Mitheral at 7:16 PM on April 1, 2022 [4 favorites]
So, is this even remotely related to an explanation about why on "The Walking Dead," the caption says "Squelch" every time they put a blade through the head of a dead one, when clearly it should say 'Squish" ? I am deeply concerned by this.
Regionalism maybe? Squelch denotes a much different sound than squish in my mind.
posted by Mitheral at 7:16 PM on April 1, 2022 [4 favorites]
Re: the horse joke, and to add to what Nelson said:
There is an aphorism in English, "You can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink." Not saying it's necessarily an accurate phrase? I don't know enough about horses, but it sounds from what other folks have said above that it is not in fact literally true. In application, it basically never has anything to do with actual horses, though, so its literal accuracy is rather beside the point. Similarly, my interpretation is that replacing the second clause with "but you can't drench it" is not supposed to be a joke about horses per se; rather, it's a joke about language. Without any knowledge about horses, it's just a (in my opinion) not particularly amusing replacement of plain language with unexpectedly complicated or unusual phrasing.
With the background knowledge that horse folks have described here, I would interpret that as adding a layer of ironic humor based on the discrepancy between the the literal accuracy in an actual horse context versus the meaning of the aphorism (making it a bit of an anti-pun in some sense?). I.e., the author's response to "But you can drench a horse!" would perhaps be something along the lines of a pointed pause followed by "Yes, that's the joke."
posted by eviemath at 7:50 PM on April 1, 2022 [2 favorites]
There is an aphorism in English, "You can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink." Not saying it's necessarily an accurate phrase? I don't know enough about horses, but it sounds from what other folks have said above that it is not in fact literally true. In application, it basically never has anything to do with actual horses, though, so its literal accuracy is rather beside the point. Similarly, my interpretation is that replacing the second clause with "but you can't drench it" is not supposed to be a joke about horses per se; rather, it's a joke about language. Without any knowledge about horses, it's just a (in my opinion) not particularly amusing replacement of plain language with unexpectedly complicated or unusual phrasing.
With the background knowledge that horse folks have described here, I would interpret that as adding a layer of ironic humor based on the discrepancy between the the literal accuracy in an actual horse context versus the meaning of the aphorism (making it a bit of an anti-pun in some sense?). I.e., the author's response to "But you can drench a horse!" would perhaps be something along the lines of a pointed pause followed by "Yes, that's the joke."
posted by eviemath at 7:50 PM on April 1, 2022 [2 favorites]
So if drench is to make drink, thench is to make think?
I don't know if it's actually related or not, but I could see how the pronunciation of "thench" could possibly, over sufficient time, drift to become "teach"?
posted by eviemath at 7:51 PM on April 1, 2022
I don't know if it's actually related or not, but I could see how the pronunciation of "thench" could possibly, over sufficient time, drift to become "teach"?
posted by eviemath at 7:51 PM on April 1, 2022
Meanwhile milkshake ducken = the past participle of the verb to milkshake duck, turning the verb into an adjective to describe a particular form of turd... a turd-ducken, if you will?
posted by eviemath at 7:58 PM on April 1, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by eviemath at 7:58 PM on April 1, 2022 [1 favorite]
But the question is why has quink quunk while quench never quank.
posted by Umami Dearest at 11:41 PM on April 1, 2022
posted by Umami Dearest at 11:41 PM on April 1, 2022
"thench" could possibly, over sufficient time, drift to become "teach"?
Wiktionary thinks otherwise: teach is from Old English tǣċan, think is from Old English þenċan.
On the subject, is there a better online free source for etymology of ordinary English words than Wiktionary? It seems pretty good for a first pass. There's better sources for neologisms, and more authoritative sources for all words that would require I pay / take a trip to the library, but for something simple like "think" is there any better quick online source?
posted by Nelson at 6:28 AM on April 2, 2022 [1 favorite]
Wiktionary thinks otherwise: teach is from Old English tǣċan, think is from Old English þenċan.
On the subject, is there a better online free source for etymology of ordinary English words than Wiktionary? It seems pretty good for a first pass. There's better sources for neologisms, and more authoritative sources for all words that would require I pay / take a trip to the library, but for something simple like "think" is there any better quick online source?
posted by Nelson at 6:28 AM on April 2, 2022 [1 favorite]
So, is this even remotely related to an explanation about why on "The Walking Dead," the caption says "Squelch" every time they put a blade through the head of a dead one, when clearly it should say 'Squish" ?
Because a) I feel squish as a verb involves gentle blunt force, not sharp edges, b) as a noun squish is often defined as “a soft squelching sound” - a squish is a quiet squelch.
I had a point C, that squishing heads already has a specific cultural referent, but it turns out I am from the parallel universe where the KitH sketch was Head Squisher, not Head Crusher as it would seem to be in this reality.
posted by zamboni at 6:43 AM on April 2, 2022 [1 favorite]
Because a) I feel squish as a verb involves gentle blunt force, not sharp edges, b) as a noun squish is often defined as “a soft squelching sound” - a squish is a quiet squelch.
I had a point C, that squishing heads already has a specific cultural referent, but it turns out I am from the parallel universe where the KitH sketch was Head Squisher, not Head Crusher as it would seem to be in this reality.
posted by zamboni at 6:43 AM on April 2, 2022 [1 favorite]
drench meaning to drink seems very weird to me. The usual usage like drenching rain or to get drenched is about getting wet not drinking.
What about trench and traunch or hench / haunch? Are they somehow related, right?
posted by autopilot at 1:41 PM on April 2, 2022
What about trench and traunch or hench / haunch? Are they somehow related, right?
posted by autopilot at 1:41 PM on April 2, 2022
It doesn’t mean to drink though, it means to cause someone or something else to drink. Eg. if someone unexpectedly drenches you with water, you’ll probably get at least a tiny bit in your mouth. Still some semantic drift, but not quite that much.
posted by eviemath at 6:48 PM on April 3, 2022
posted by eviemath at 6:48 PM on April 3, 2022
Horse drenching: "giving a medicine or liquid preparation by mouth into the stomach of an animal."
I am curious why the English language horse world is so inclined to keep very old words alive.
posted by sepviva at 6:49 PM on April 4, 2022
I am curious why the English language horse world is so inclined to keep very old words alive.
posted by sepviva at 6:49 PM on April 4, 2022
I am curious why the English language horse world is so inclined to keep very old words alive.
I am curious why you think it would not.
posted by zamboni at 7:52 PM on April 4, 2022
I am curious why you think it would not.
posted by zamboni at 7:52 PM on April 4, 2022
Pops in to pour out a beer or something appropriate for "DOVE", which seems to be fading out of the language in favour of (the ugly sounding) "DIVED".
posted by jokeefe at 6:08 PM on April 5, 2022
posted by jokeefe at 6:08 PM on April 5, 2022
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