"That's a great deal to make one word mean," Alice said in a thoughtful tone. "When I make a word do a lot of work like that," said Humpty Dumpty, "I always pay it extra."

Sunday, 24 March 2013

Guttle and guzzle

   To guttle was to swallow or to feed luxuriously - in which latter sense it was, according to Johnson, a low word.    Presumably it was a forerunner of the word guzzle which is still in use today and means to eat or drink (something) greedily.   Cars, for example, are notorious for guzzling petrol. 

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