_vir_

• Format: Manuscript
• Language: English
• Published: 1971
• Subjects: English language > Dialects > Newfoundland and Labrador; Newfoundland
• Online Access: http://collections.mun.ca/cdm/ref/collection/elrcdne/id/67657

var n _Folk Language_- "chip out wood" In my home town about 10-15 years ago when every house had wood stoves, the men of the community had to cut large amounts of firewood. The kind of wood most often cut was _vir_ [PT] or (fir). The vir is a sappy wood which is hard to burn as soon as it is cut. It needed to be dried first. Sometimes green wood would be brought home and stuck up so Reverse that it could dry up to be burned as fire was needed. Often though men would go into the woods (perhaps in the winter) with a saw and saw down at large number of trees. These would fall on the ground with the boughs or branches still on them and be left like that. The purpose of leaving the trees with branches on was that during the summer the trunks of the tree would dry out (not being on the ground to get soggy) with the help of wind and sun. The branches kept the trees from touching the ground; that is the important fact. In the fall when the wood was dry, the person would go back & cut the boughs off the tree, cut off the top and bring the resulting dry logs of firewood home for the long winter. The act of cutting the boughs off the trees was known "as chippin out wood" Yes DICT CEN. 57 Used I and Sup Used Sup 6 Used I Randell Smith 22 Ang. Normans Cove T-B. anytime [INC] July 3/71 Cecil Smith father carpenter 58 same same Angl. from his father & also from his experience as a logger 20 years ago at Mcleton's Newfoundland Folklore Survey Card. The opposite side of this card is V_13033. Dictionary citation is found under Sprin n under the source M 69-14.