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The Times & The Sunday Times
The Times & The Sunday Times
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Word Watching answers: August 6 , 2003

By Philip Howard
The Times
By Philip Howard
The Times

CLICKETING

(a) Northern dialect. A fox is said to go a-clicketing when he is desirous of copulation.

MINENWERFER

(c) A German trench-mortar, literally, mine-thrower. 1917: “Minenwerfer — A high-power trench mortar shell of the Germans, which makes no noise coming through the air. Tommy nicknames them ‘Minnies’.”

CODOLOGY

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(c) An Irish word meaning, jocularly, “the science of leg- pulling”. Cod is an Irishism for a joke or hoax. A hoaxer is called a codologist.

FIRK

(a) A trick, dodge or subterfuge. Also a freak, prank or caprice. From the Old English fercian. 1636: “This was such a firk of piety I ne’er heard of.”