gulch

• Format: Manuscript
• Language: English
• Subjects: English language > Dialects > Newfoundland and Labrador; Newfoundland
• Online Access: http://collections.mun.ca/cdm/ref/collection/elrcdne/id/29214

gulch As a verb, _gulch_ is recorded for the following: 1. [< provincial english _gulch_, the act of swallowing< ME< Early english _gulchen_ v., swallow greedily; cogn. with German _gulkin_] Swallow. 2. [< the foregoing; infl. by confusion with _glutch_ v. (def. 3) q.v.] Swallow with difficulty; experience difficulty in swallowing. 3. _rare_ [< provincial English] Plunge or fall heavily. 4.[?< def. 1, infl. by Scots _glut_ v., gulp and/or by _glutch_ (def. 3)] Gulp down. 5. _esp. Lab.;jocular_ [see _gulch_ n. (def. 4)] Resort to or hide in a _gluch_ for purposes of love-making. _Gulch_ (n., def. 3) has not, with a single exception, been cited as used in the U.S. prior to the California "gold rush". It is found on the B.C. inland only as goldseekers left San Francisco area and joined in the aser River and Cariboo "rushes". [reverse] _Glch_ is, however, used on the western shore of Vancouver Island and--to my owledge--nowhere else outside the Atlantic Provinces--in sense 1, referring articularly to a ravine opening to the sea dn partially inundated at high ide. There was some relatively early settlement in this west-coast area by Nfld fishermen nd the word may be a direct import. While _gulch_ is the only spelling I have en in B.C. place names, the pronunciation "gulsh" is occasionally heard. _Gulch_ n. (sense 3) is not particularly common in the prairie provinces but is enerally known. Its use seems initially to have been due to a influx of U.S. attlemen, some presumably from California, late in the nineteenth century. have no encountered _gulsh_ as a verb in other than Labrador and Newfoundland ontexts, though it is said to have been used in Nova Scotia. _card 2_ of 4 cards over W. J. KIRWIN DEC 1972 JH DEC 1972 Used I and Sup Not used Reverse of card at G_15137. The far left edge of the text on this card has been cut off.