During the late 19th and early 20th century, thousands of volunteers helped crowdsource the Oxford English Dictionary. This venerable reference work includes citations sent in by inventors, eccentrics, scientists and educators, an Arctic explorer —...
If you’re fossicking specifically for opals in Australia, you’re said to be noodling. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Noodling for Opals” Grant, earlier we were talking about the term fossick, meaning to hunt for gemstones. And I...
To fossick meaning “to rummage about,” derives from the use of fossicking for the practice of literally digging about for gemstones in abandoned mining excavations, a hobby that’s particularly popular in Australia and New Zealand. There, such...