MegaSack DRAW - This year's winner is user - rgwb
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The word "gnar" appears to be the flavour of the month, doesn't it? I assume it's an abbreviation of "gnarly", as that would make some sense. That being the case, does anyone know the etymological history of gnarly? An odd word, I think you'll agree.
Something to do with riding on technical trails, predominately featuring tree roots?
Original from 70's surfspeak - to describe waves that are violently breaking without the form that would render them more rideable.Can also describe less than ideal females.
[i]"I'm bailing on this session-waves are too gnarly"
"I had to ditch her friend, she was lookin' gnarly"[/i]
I'm going to use the second version when next out on a friday night!
gnarled - the source of the whole group of words, including gnarl (v.), gnarl (n.), gnarly, is Shakespeare's use of gnarled in 1603:"Thy sharpe and sulpherous bolt Splits the vn-wedgable and gnarled Oke." ["Measure for Measure," II.ii.116]
OED calls it a variant of knurled, from M.E. knar "knot in wood" (late 14c.), originally "a rock, a stone;" of uncertain origin. "(Gnarled) occurs in one passage of Shakes. (for which the sole authority is the folio of 1623), whence it came into general use in the nineteenth century" [OED].
Hmm, interesting. So, we have a knot of wood, which by dint of Bill Rattlejavelin's odd spelling habits becomes "gnarled".
Still not sure how it's come to mean that which it has!