{"id":23321,"date":"2024-03-21T14:19:46","date_gmt":"2024-03-21T14:19:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/?p=23321"},"modified":"2024-03-21T14:19:47","modified_gmt":"2024-03-21T14:19:47","slug":"noodling-about-nurdles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/?p=23321","title":{"rendered":"Noodling About Nurdles"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Do you like to <strong>nurdle<\/strong>?<\/p>\n<p>The verb <strong>to nurdle<\/strong> can mean to gently waffle or muse on a subject which one clearly knows little about, which is something I do occasionally, or to score runs (in cricket) by gently nudging the ball into vacant areas of the field. It can also mean to shoot (a wink) into a position too close to the pot to be easily potted (in <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/tiddlywinks\"><\/a>tiddlywinks<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p>As a noun, a <strong>nurdle<\/strong> is such a shot in cricket or tiddlywinks; cylindrical shaped pre-production plastic pellet used in manufacturing and packaging; or blob of toothpaste shaped like a wave, often depicted on toothpaste packaging [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/nurdle\">source<\/a>].<\/p>\n<p><a data-flickr-embed=\"true\" href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/42754460@N00\/44171726681\/in\/photolist-23z4rE6-2d5uMdE-24Yniop-4EYtPu-juNfP8-juP8hU-juMsxc-juLE3Z-juPCr4-juRA85-qFEnAA-juQmiU-juNA9G-juLqfi-juPqpZ-juRNg3-juSCR9-juR2eQ-juQbkY-juQWeX-juRqQ5-juQSRL-juLK9a-juLAAP-juPXdo-juPjE2-juSmqd-juMfAr-juTb8s-juRXPm-juPQUm-juR9NL-juNSma-juQvXv-juPRkk-juS3qq-juNGFZ-juQJt2-7UQufv-7VCNX9-juPb71-ap6PWA-2gBBSjR-2gBBSWx-2gBBT6L-ukgUwX-54cgYc-7RT2MT-2aiiDqv-2fuKuyA\" title=\"Top view of my nurdle jar\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/1846\/44171726681_3b4ccbc98f_z.jpg\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" alt=\"Top view of my nurdle jar\"\/><\/a><script async src=\"\/\/embedr.flickr.com\/assets\/client-code.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>The toothpaste <strong>nurdle<\/strong>, was apparently coined by the American Dental Association to educate the public about proper tooth brushing. It first appeared, as <strong>nerdle<\/strong>, in an article in the <em>St. Louis Post-Dispatch<\/em> in August 1996. The spelling later changed to <strong>nurdle<\/strong>. It is possible related to <strong>nodule<\/strong>, which comes from Latin <em>n\u014ddulus<\/em> (small knot), from <em>n\u014ddus<\/em> (knot) [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/nodule\">source<\/a>].<\/p>\n<p>The 1958\/59 ITV sketch show <em>After Hours<\/em> featured the olde English sport of drats, later known as <strong>nurdling<\/strong>. This might be one origin of the word [<a href=\"https:\/\/english.stackexchange.com\/questions\/518730\/what-is-the-origin-of-the-verb-to-nurdle\">source<\/a>]. <\/p>\n<p>The sport might even have older roots going back to pre-Roman Britain, or at least the 16th century in Dorset. See:<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/theocho\/comments\/11ysygr\/the_ancient_sport_of_nurdling\/\">https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/theocho\/comments\/11ysygr\/the_ancient_sport_of_nurdling\/<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dorsetecho.co.uk\/news\/1849991.a-nurdling-we-will-go\/\">https:\/\/www.dorsetecho.co.uk\/news\/1849991.a-nurdling-we-will-go\/<\/a><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/rgWO2krOkQU?si=ceoDaTQd7uE9D5Vo\" title=\"YouTube video player\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>Nurdling<\/strong> can also refer to the practise of collecting little plastic <strong>nurdles<\/strong> wash up on beaches [<a href=\"https:\/\/flyintheface.blogspot.com\/2011\/10\/nurdling-for-beginners.html\">source<\/a>].<\/p>\n<p><strong>Nurdle<\/strong> should not be confused with <strong>noodle<\/strong>, which as a verb means:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>To play (a musical instrument or passage of music) or to sing (a passage of music) in an improvisatory or lighthearted manner.<\/li>\n<li>To ponder or think about (something)<\/li>\n<li>To play a musical instrument or to sing in an improvisatory or lighthearted manner; also, to play a series of ornamental notes on an instrument.<\/li>\n<li>To ponder or think, especially in an unproductive or unsystematic manner; to muse.<\/li>\n<li>To attempt in an informal or uncertain manner; to fiddle.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Other meanings are available. This possibly comes from the German word <strong>nudeln<\/strong> (o make music or sing listlessly; to make music or sing at a low pitch or volume, or in an improvisatory manner) [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/noodle#English\">source<\/a>].<\/p>\n<p>Let&#8217;s finish with some wise words from the great Rambling Syd Rumpo a singer of silly folk songs played by Kenneth Williams on the BBC Radio comedy show <em>Round The Horne<\/em>:<\/p>\n<p>Early one morning<br \/>\nJust as my splod was rising<br \/>\nI heard a maiden scream in the valley below<br \/>\nO don&#8217;t nurdle me<br \/>\nO never nurdle me<br \/>\nHow could you use your cordwangle so!<\/p>\n<div align=\"center\"><a href=\"http:\/\/my.kualo.com\/uk\/go\/00572\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.kualo.com\/rewards\/uk-unlimited2-468x60.gif\" width=\"468\" height=\"60\" border=\"0\"\nalt=\"Unlimited Web Hosting - Kualo\"\/><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Do you like to nurdle? The verb to nurdle can mean to gently waffle or muse on a subject which one clearly knows little about, which is something I do occasionally, or to score runs (in cricket) by gently nudging the ball into vacant areas of the field. It can also mean to shoot (a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[104,107,10,78],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23321","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english","category-etymology","category-language","category-words-and-phrases"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23321","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23321"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23321\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23328,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23321\/revisions\/23328"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23321"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23321"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23321"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}