scapple means to work roughly, or shape without finishing, as stone before leaving the quarry. It carries an Arena rating of 1568, earned across 51 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, scapple ranks #245 of 17,142 for Most Ingenious Words, #436 of 17,132 for Most Betrayed by Its Sound, #1,339 of 17,151 for The Improbable, #1,428 of 17,127 for Most Vivid Words.
scapple is pronounced /ˈskæp.əl/.
Why “scapple” is a great word
SCAPPLE — [Verb] To shape or dress stone or timber roughly, without finishing it to a smooth surface. From Middle French escapeler (“to dress timber”), likely from Late Latin scapello, a derivative of Latin scalpellum (“small knife, scalpel”). First attested in English in 1578. Unlike “scabble” (which implies a stage nearer to finish) or “polish” (which seeks a glossy, final perfection), to scapple is to arrest the work deliberately in its raw, muscular state. It is the chisel’s first brutal conversation with the quarry block, the adze leaving its toothy signature on a beam, the coarse grain of a tread worn only by generations of feet—a testament to the wisdom of leaving things ready for time, not for show.
Etymology
Compare Old French eskaper, eschapler (“to cut, hew”), Late Latin scapello. Compare scabble.
verb
- To work roughly, or shape without finishing, as stone before leaving the quarry.
- To dress (e.g. stone) in any way short of fine tooling or rubbing.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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