Ok, I'm not the grammar police or anything, but I keep seeing the term "cark" in reference to cleaning tuna. I've looked it up in several dictionaries and can't find cark to mean anything even close to cleaning fish.
Here's Encarta's definition:
cark [ kaark ]
intransitive verb (past carked, past participle carked, present participle cark·ing, 3rd person present singular carks)
worry: to worry ( archaic )
noun (plural carks)
anxiety: worry or a worry ( archaic )
[14th century. From Old Northern French carkier , from Old French charchier , from late Latin carricare to load (see caricature).]
Rogets Thesarus search brings up pain, nightmares and anguish as synonyms.
Websters Collegiate Thesarus returns:
Entry Word: cark
Function: verb
Text: 1
Synonyms TROUBLE 1, ail, distress, upset, worry
2
Synonyms WORRY 3, fret, fuss, pother, stew, ||tew
Hyper word search:
cark
4 entries found.
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]
Cark \Cark\, v. t.
To vex; to worry; to make by anxious care or worry. [R.]
Nor can a man, independently . . . of God's blessing,
care and cark himself one penny richer. --South.
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]
Cark \Cark\, n. [OE. cark, fr. a dialectic form of F. charge;
cf. W. carc anxiety, care, Arm karg charge, burden. See
{Charge}, and cf. {Cargo}.]
A noxious or corroding care; solicitude; worry. [Archaic.]
His heavy head, devoid of careful cark. --Spenser.
Fling cark and care aside. --Motherwell.
Freedom from the cares of money and the cark of
fashion. --R. D.
Blackmore.
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]
Cark \Cark\, v. i.
To be careful, anxious, solicitous, or troubles in mind; to
worry or grieve. [R.] --Beau. & Fl.
From WordNet (r) 1.6 [wn]
cark
v : disturb in mind or make uneasy or cause to be worried or
alarmed; "She was rather perturbed by the news that her
father was seriously ill" [syn: {perturb}, {unhinge}, {disquiet},
{trouble}, {distract}, {disorder}]
American Heritage:
cark
PRONUNCIATION: kärk
TRANSITIVE & INTRANSITIVE VERB: Inflected forms: carked, cark·ing, carks
To burden or be burdened with trouble; worry.
NOUN: A worry; a trouble: carks and cares.
ETYMOLOGY: Middle English carken, from Norman French carquier, to burden, load, from Late Latin carricre. See cargo.
Word of the day search:
Cark
Kel Richards writes
The Australian National Dictionary records cark (and its alternative spelling kark) meaning: to die. This can be used of people or of things, as in: my computer has carked it. It appears not to be an old word, the earliest recorded usage being 1977. But where does it come from? Well, the AND suggests from the mournful cry of the crow – a carrion bird. This usage is recorded from a little earlier: from 1936 there are descriptions of crows carking (or cawing) as they feed on a dead carcase. However, there is a much older English word cark which, from the 14th century onwards, appears to have meant: load or burden. (In origin it’s related to the word charge.) To be carked, then, was to be burdened with care, burdened with worries and troubles. Now, if we see death as the ultimate burden that crushes the life out of a bloke, that could be source of our word cark (rather than the cry of the crow). It’s a possibility, anyway
So, I don't get it. Are tuna fisherman responsible for inventing language and filling the freezer too?
Pitch Pocket
What's a Cark?
Linear Mode
