gruffy-ground
n.— «But here and there, as at Charterhouse, Priddy, and around Shipham, the “gruffy-ground,” as it was called, survives. Although wild flowers in great variety blossom on it, and heaps of soil and stone turned over by the miners have become cushiony seas for picnickers, it remains land with an unnatural look—land that even now seems in turmoil, and an impressive monument to the immense energies of men in the long ago.» —“Mendip’s famous centuries-old lead mines” by Jill Bailey Weston Mercury (United Kingdom) May 9, 2007. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
The lovely Icelandic word for “ground fog,” dalalæða, comes from dalur, meaning “valley” and læða which is variously translated as “sneak up” or “female cat.” This is part of a complete episode...
A caller with a 25-year-old parrot wonders: How much language do birds really understand? Plus, Knock-knock. Who’s there? Boo. Well… you can guess the rest. But there was a time when these goofy jokes were a brand-new craze sweeping the nation...
