Re: Make thee an Arke of Gopher-wood

  I have since turned to the Oxford English Dictionary and see that the
etymology of
goffer is gaufrer from the French and gaufre means a honeycomb.  And the
OED  quotes Webster "gaufre was used by the French
settlers in North America as a name for various burrowing animals, and
is a transferred use of gaufre honeycomb".  

After my admittedly somewhat flippant remark about Gopher wood, it
occurred to me that Joan had almost certainly answered her own question
when she wrote the above etymology. Is not the Balsam wood used for
boats to this day in the Middle East "honeycombed"?I was certainly
unprepared for the wealth of fascinating erudition which burst upon my
computer screen this morning. Thank you everybody. Joan, you know me too
well! Yes I do "like these esoteric scrambles after dubious
translations" as you put it,- much more fun than sitting here
propagating say, Cladrastis in either yellow or black (mine are green
actually) which is my day-job. OK, so I more or less cracked the
Romans-and-lavender-bathwater legend, but  gophers and gopher wood are a
wholly different ball game and I bow to the superior knowldge of my
trans-Atlantic colleagues on this one.

Anthony

Anthony
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