Cucoloris

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Yeah, hi.

Hi, who’s this?

How are you?

Doing what?

This is Thomas, calling from Lafayette, California, where we’re doing a photo shoot today.

And you’re doing a photo shoot? What are you shooting?

We’re doing furniture.

So yeah, on our photo shoots, we use a lot of different tools, and some of the tools have funny names.

And one of the tools that we use is called a kookalorus.

And this thing, it’s a piece of, sometimes it’s a piece of wood with some holes cut out in it, and we put it in front of a light so that it creates interesting shadows.

And on set, we use it a lot, and we always just call it a cookie.

So, you know, can you bring a cookie over here? You know, I need a cookie.

So we say that a lot, and sometimes people ask, well, why is it called a cookie?

And we say, well, it’s actually a kookaloris.

As if that helps, yeah.

Does it have feathers or what?

Yeah, exactly.

And we never could figure out what it is.

I did a search on the Internet for stories, what it could be, and the different stories, there’s different stories, but I don’t think any of them sounds right or makes much sense.

So I thought maybe you guys had an answer.

All right, I can help you with this because I have done an entry for the word cookie on my Double Tongue Dictionary website.

I did this a few years ago, and I found eight different spellings of kookalorus.

And also some people call it, besides calling it a cookie, they call it a kook or a kuk or a cuckoo.

And you maybe have heard it called a gobo as well, right?

Yeah, a gobo, yeah.

Or an ulcer or a dapple sheet because it puts dapples of light on whatever you’re filming or shooting, right?

There you go.

So this is the device where you have the light on one side, you have the kookalorus, and then it casts a shadow that looks like light passing through the trees.

Correct.

Right.

I was not able to find the origin of this word.

Hollywood, which is mainly where this term comes from and where it’s mainly used, is filled with people who like to invent myth, as you might imagine.

And they have invented—

You get paid for it, too.

I counted seven different supposed origin stories for this term, and they’re fun, but they’re throwaway.

That’s the thing, is they’re like light and fun.

And there’s just no meat to them.

I just can’t believe any of them.

The best one that I heard about this term is from 1954 from the Journal of Western Folklore.

So I pass it on to you because it has the slight approval of some academic back in the day.

And in a footnote, he writes, cucoloris, and he has a weird spelling, as I understand it is a coined word of no special philological significance or implication.

And he said, yes, exactly.

That’s the best.

But he suggests that it might be related to the famous director and producer, George Cukor.

C-U-K-O-R.

And he was involved with the Gone with the Wind, although I think he was fired a couple weeks before they started shooting.

And he was also, he did the remake of A Star is Born.

And so there’s a suggestion in the 1920s or 1930s that he was somehow involved with the creation of this device in Hollywood when they were shooting films.

That’s the best theory I have.

But it doesn’t explain where the Loris part comes from.

It looks like Greek, but it’s not a Greek word as far as I know.

Not as far as I know.

I’ve asked Greeks.

I’ve looked in Greek dictionaries, and it’s not Latin, and it’s just an invented goofy word as far as we know.

Oh, that’s kind of unsatisfying in a way.

It’s kind of unsatisfying.

Hello, welcome to my world.

I’ll spend eight, I mean, I probably spend days on this dictionary entry.

Days!

And I could not find an answer to it because it’s a really interesting, it’s so strange looking.

It’s tantalizing, isn’t it?

It’s kookaloris.

It sounds like a Seussian character, right?

I really…

Courtney hears a kookaloris.

One person claimed, for example, that it comes from a Greek word for breaking of light.

But I couldn’t prove that either.

I can’t think of any word like that.

So, sorry, it’s a big orig-unk, as I like to say.

Origin unknown.

But it does go back to the 1950s.

It’s probably used since the 1930s in Hollywood for sure.

It’s got a long history.

It’s funny how consistent the language of Hollywood can be.

And you’re not even really in Hollywood.

You’re like in this sideline, right?

Are you shooting stills, right?

Not film?

We’re shooting stills, yeah.

If we hear from somebody out there who’s got an answer for this, or at least a really great story, even if it can’t be proven, we’ll pass it along, all right?

Oh, that would be wonderful.

Thanks for calling.

Really appreciate it.

Good luck with the shoot.

Yeah, good luck.

Thank you.

Take care.

Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

All right.

Goodbye.

If you want to talk about language, call the Kukulori right here, 877-929-9673.