A bollard is a post that helps guide traffic. It probably derives from the Middle English word bole, meaning “tree trunk.” This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Bollard”
Am I the only person who didn’t know until last week what a bollard is? Do you know what a bollard?
Yeah, these are like these short concrete pylons that kind of block cars from going on the sidewalk.
Or they protect the entry to federal buildings or they’re actually used in the seashore to wrap ropes and tables and things around.
Yes, those are called bollards.
How did I live all these years without knowing that?
It is a vast language.
You need to forgive yourself.
Thank you, Grant.
Thank you very much.
I was driving with a friend of mine to dinner at someone’s house, and we called the host as we got close.
The passenger did and said, where should we park?
And she said, oh, park by the bollard.
And then my passenger said, okay.
And I was like, how come you two know this word and I don’t?
Yeah, what’s a bollard?
But, yeah, it comes from a Middle English word that means the trunk of a tree.
The trunk of a tree.
I didn’t know that part.
Yeah, partner with a ballard.
Nice.
B-O-L-L-A-R-D.
Ballard, yeah.
Yeah.
But isn’t that cool how you can go for decades in your life, and all of a sudden you realize this thing that most other people know that you don’t know?
Yeah, you look around, and everything probably has a name to someone, but just not to you.
I know.
It has a name.
Like the parts of a computer monitor, all the trade terms for that crazy stuff.
Oh?
Beezle, for example.
B-E-Z-E-L.
Oh, Beezle.
Is that the edge?
Yeah, it’s more or less the edge.
Okay.
Email words@waywordradio.org.
