Chestnuts revisited
 

On Apr 29, 4:39*pm, "Bill Grey" wrote:


Thyanks for your very interesting reply.

You're welcome.

As a matter of interest. kids do not throw conkers (horse chestnuts) at one
another, *The game of "Conkers" is where two kids have a conker each. This
is pierced and a short length of string passed through the knotted to form a
sort of pendulum. *Each kid takes turns to swing his Conker at the other
kid's conker which is held passively. *The one whose conker gets smashed is
the loser. *We used to harden our conkers by soaking them in vinegar - I
don't really know if this was really effective.

There you go.

Best wishes

Bill

That stirs an ancient dim memory. We never played that game ourselves
but I believe I recall encountering a description of it somewhere a
long time ago. I wonder whether children today still play it.

So, I just googled it and it seems they do. Interestingly, Wikipedia
suggests that the etymology of the name might be onomatopoetic,
"...representing the sound made by a horse chestnut as it hits another
hard object, such as a skull (another children's "game", also called
conkers, consists of simply throwing the seeds at one another over a
fence or wall)." :)

This at least seems likely to be the origin of the term to get conked,
meaning to take a blow to the head. Not as common as it once was, but
one still hears it from time to time.

giles