Following our conversation about fossicking for gemstones, a listener in Melbourne, Australia, points out that where he’s from, emu is slang for a person who picks up discarded tickets at a racetrack, hoping to find an accidentally discarded...
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.
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...