Fwd: "mudlark, n." - Word of the Day from the OED

[Dave Monroe]

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Subject: "mudlark, n." - Word of the Day from the OED
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OED Online Word of the Day

Your word for today is: mudlark, n.

mudlark, n.
Pronunciation: Brit. /ˈmʌdlɑːk/,  U.S. /ˈmədˌlɑrk/
Etymology: <  mud n.1 + lark n.1, probably humorously after skylark n.
 1.  slang. A hog; pork. Now rare.
1785  F. Grose Classical Dict. Vulgar Tongue, Mud lark, a hog.
1801  T. Campbell Mobiade in  W. Beattie Life & Lett. T. Campbell
(1849) I. 380 Or fry the mud-lark's odoriferous wing... The poetical
name for a pig, principally used in..Kilmainham jail.
1833  J. Neal Down-Easters i. 47, I should like to know..what upon
irth he means by..mud-larks that's made into Virginny-ham.
1869 Overland Monthly Aug. 129/2 A hog clandestinely killed outside of
camp and smuggled in..was called a ‘slow bear’... ‘Mud-lark’ signified
the same thing.
1923 Dial. Notes 5 240 Boiled potatoes an' mud lark.
 2.  colloq.
 a.  A person who scavenges for usable debris in the tidal mud of a
river, harbour, etc. Also: someone who scavenges for such debris in a
sewer; (in extended use) a beggar who operates near a river (rare); a
person who cleans out or clears a sewer (rare). Now chiefly hist.
1796  P. Colquhoun Police of Metropolis iii. 60 Men and boys, known by
the name of Mud-larks, who prowl about, and watch under the ships when
the tide will permit.
1796  P. Colquhoun Police of Metropolis iii. 61 Gentlemen
plunderers..are far more pernicious than the lumpers or mud-larks.
1801 Monthly Rev. 35 243 Miserable beings..accustomed to grub in the
river at low water for old ropes..known by the appellation of
Mud-larks.
1804  M. Edgeworth Lame Jervas xi, in Pop. Tales I. 77 He..became what
is called a mud-lark; that is a plunderer of the ships cargoes that
unload in the Thames.
1845 Chambers's Edinb. Jrnl. 3 105/1 These ‘mud-larks’..bear generally
a bad character... Their functions do not end with the shore, but in
the sewer.
1851  H. Mayhew London Labour II. 155/2 The mud-larks collect whatever
they happen to find, such as coals, bits of old-iron, [etc.].
1859  C. Hotten Dict. Mod. Slang 65 Mud-larks,..occasionally those men
who cleanse the sewers, with great boots and sou'wester hats.
1892  A. Dobson 18th Cent. Vignettes 233 The same crowd of mud-larks
and loafers would come rushing into the water to offer..their
services.
1959 Times 16 Mar. (Port of London Suppl.) p. xvi/1 ‘Long apron men’
and mudlarks who..waited to pick up goods thrown to them by
accomplices on board merchantmen.
1985 Antiquaries Jrnl. June 450 It was found by an experienced
mudlark, licensed by the Port of London Authority to dig and search
the foreshore at that point.
1994  T. Clark Junkets on Sad Planet viii. 137 Coal-heavers, or even
those Mudlarks who comb the City sewers for any scrap of stuff they
can find to sell.
1995 Independent on Sunday 19 Feb. (Review Suppl.) 71/3 The public is
allowed to beachcomb on the shores, but serious mudlarks..must obtain
a license (£9 per annum) from the PLA and abide by its rules.
 b.  A street urchin; a child who plays in mud. Also (in extended
use): any dirty or untidy person.
1814  S. T. Coleridge Let. 12 Sept. (1959) III. 532, I..shall
therefore send forth my two She-bears to tear in pieces the most
obnoxious of these ragged children in intellect, and to scare the rest
of these mischievous little Mud-larks back to their crevice-nests &
lurking Holes.
1829  P. Egan Boxiana New Ser. II. 426 The entire group, owing to the
wretched state of the road, were nothing but mudlarks!
1865 Sat. Rev. 5 July 4 It is Lord Palmerston's misfortune..to number
three or four of these incurable mudlarks among his official
offspring.
1886  R. C. Leslie Sea-painter's Log 26 Such a boy looks down upon
mudlarks very much, calling them nippers and other scornful names.
1944  M. Lowry Let. Sept. (1995) I. 462 Thanks a million for
everything: sorry, I was probably a loathsome guest, a sloth or mud
lark might have been better.
1989  ‘C. Roman’ Foreplay iv. 44 Skinny-dipping is a midnight sport
for mudlarks and water babies.
1995 N.Y. Rev. Bks. 22 June 48/4 The filthier the work—and hence the
clothes—of colliery girls or mudlarks the more he doted on them.
 c.  Chiefly in pl. (A nickname for) a soldier of the Royal Engineers.
1878  R. Trimen Regiments Brit. Army 42 Royal Engineers..nicknamed
‘the Mudlarks’.
2002 shop.store.yahoo.com 8 Aug. (O.E.D. Archive), Corps of Royal
Engineers. Formed 1717 a part of the military branch of Board of
Ordinance, Regimental Depot, Chatham; nicknamed ‘The Mudlarks’.
 3.
 a.  Brit. regional. Any of various birds that frequent muddy places
or use mud in their nest-building; esp. (a) the rock pipit, Anthus
petrosus; (b) the Eurasian skylark, Alauda arvensis.
1840  J. H. Frere Birds 64 The Sand-Martins, And Mud Larks, too, were
busy in their department, Mixing the mortar.
1882 Encycl. Brit XIV. 317/1 The Mud-Lark, Rock-Lark, Titlark, and
Tree-Lark are Pipits.
1890 Nature Notes 1 24 With regard to ‘larks’, the Mudlark is the
Skylark, so called from its nest being lined with mud.
a1903  W. M. E. Fowler in Eng. Dial. Dict. (1903) IV. 190/1
[Hampshire] Bunt-larks is rare, but mud-larks is vary common
hereabouts.
1913  H. K. Swann Dict. Eng. & Folk-names Brit. Birds 162 Mud Lark, a
name for the Rock-Pipit.
1968  C. E. Jackson Brit. Names of Birds 40 Dunlin:..mud-lark Glos.
 b  Austral. The magpie lark, Grallina cyanoleuca, which builds a
bowl-shaped nest of mud.
1898  E. E. Morris Austral Eng. 278/1 Magpie-Lark..an Australian
black-and-white bird..resembling the Magpie in appearance, but
smaller; called also Pee-wee, and Mudlark, from its building its nest
of mud.
1911  E. M. Clowes On Wallaby xi. 290 The mud larks, rather like our
water-wagtails, only much larger, come there with the most wanton
flutter of broad black and white tails.
1965 Austral. Encycl. V. 460/1 The name ‘magpie-lark’ was presumably
bestowed upon it because it runs on the ground like a lark and has
pied plumage;..‘mud-lark’, owing to its preference for the muddy banks
of creeks and waterholes.
1978  D. Stuart Wedgetail View 36 Magpie, mudlark and shell parrot
spearing in jewelled wave through spinifex.
 4  colloq. A horse which runs well in wet or muddy conditions; = mudder n.1 1.
1906 Bar & Buffet Aug. 9/4 Mud lark, a horse that excels on a muddy track.
1914  A. B. Paterson in Song of Pen (1983) 312 Some horses revel in
mud... The mudlark contingent are generally horses with good loin
power.
1975 Sunday Tel.(Sydney) 6 Apr. 48 Born Star a Mudlark. Born Star, a
two-year-old, yesterday outclassed the field at Sandown in his first
start on a rain-affected track.
1994 Sporting Life 28 Oct. 3/2 This son of Conquistador Cielo (a
prolific sire of mudlarks) took a conditions race on a sloppy track by
12 and a half lengths.
Compounds

 mudlark meet n. colloq. a sporting event for old cars, run on tidal
mud or sand.
1971 National Geographic May 719/2 Guernsey invented annual mudlark
meets, in which old bangers—near-wrecked automobiles—are raced across
the oozing sands at low tide.

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