Wozzit called?

[Kostas Kavoussanakis]

OK, so if oed is anything to go by, tripod as a three-legged vessel is quoted in 1370. The earliest quote of pd as a seed-bearing fruit appears to be in 1553.

Kostas

[The Natural Philosopher]

However, remember that those that wrote, used mainly latin to write in, and the courtly language was Norman French. Germanic languages don't appear in English writing before Chaucer really.

You probably wont find a written example of 'pig' much before that date either.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Yes - that's what the dictionary on this computer said. But whether the 'pod' refers to the legs or pot I dunno. But a pod is normally long and narrow rather than round.

Right.

[Roger Chapman]

FWIW Collins Dictionary has:

"sheerlegs or shearlegs - a device for lifting lifting heavy weights consisting of 2 or more spars lashed together at the upper ends lashed together at the upper ends from which a lifting tackle is suspended. Also called: shears. [C19: variant of shear legs]."

My Shorter Oxford doesn't have the sheer variation:

"Shear-legs. 1860 ... A device consisting of three poles of wood or iron bolted together at their upper ends and extended below, carrying tackle for raising heavy weights for machinery."

The Shorter Oxford does have sheer-hulk/shear-hulk (1768) (fitted with shears) and says "In the pop. fig. use of the word the first element is often misunderstood as sheer adj. and the compound written as two words."

Buried among the many definitions of shears (large scissors might suggest the original derivation) is:

"shears - A device used upon ships, and in dockyards and mines, for raising and fixing masts, boilers and other heavy gear, consisting of two (or occas. more) poles steadied (in a sloping position) by guys and fastened together at the top and fastened together at the top, from which the hoisting tackle depends, and with their lower ends separated as a base and secured to the deck or platform. Often spelt sheers. 1625."

I can't help thinking that the definition of shear-legs in particular is more than a little suspect. All in all not exactly the Shorter Oxford's finest hour. I wonder if they have tidied up in the latest edition.

Gyn has passed me and my dictionaries by but the Shorter Oxford does at least come up with:

"gin - a) An apparatus for hoisting heavy weights; now usually a tripod, with a winch or drum round which the rope is wound. M.E. b) Mining. A drum or windlass for hoisting, pumping, etc. 1686."

Among 12 separate senses of the word gin for things mechanical in addition to mothers ruin and to begin.

So my vote has to be for shear-legs, shears being in common use today for cutting implements.