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Word of the Week (202): DRICKSIE (probability 22832), by David Sutton

DRICKSIE is used of timber and means having decayed spots covered by healthy wood. It has a variant DRUXY, and both adjectives compare.

There are other words relating to the rottenness of timber. PUNK is rotten wood, giving the adjective PUNKY. DOTY is a dialect word for decayed. CONKY and PECKY refer to wood affected by a fungal disease. A DODDARD tree is one that has decayed with the loss of branches, and such a tree might be called a DADDOCK.

A dead tree or tree decayed at the top can be called a RAMPICK (with variants RANPIKE, RAMPIKE or RAMPOLE), and this gives an adjective RAMPICKED.

Wood decayed enough to serve for tinder is called TOUCHWOOD. And a deposit of decayed woody material under a marsh is called a MOORLOG.

If you want to stop your timber getting rotten you can always KYANISE/KYANIZE it by saturating it with a solution of corrosive sublimate, or BURNETTISE/BURNETTISE it by treating it with a solution of chloride of zinc.

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