A noisy intruder sparks Matt Stone’s musings on a word with many tangents. Image with a little help from AI.
By Matt Stone
NOT that I would ever be disrespectful of our dear editor of the Bass Coast Post, but I'm a little concerned that she's starting to lose it a bit. Normally cool and collected, she sent a text message the other day: “That f&*# varmint shrieked until nearly midnight and started again at 4.47am. It sounded as if it was just outside my window but probably not. How is your varmint going?”
We knew at once that she was referring to the Koel bird. The true koels, Eudynamys, are a genus of cuckoos from Asia, Australia and the Pacific. They are large sexually dimorphic cuckoos that eat fruits and insects and have loud distinctive calls. They are brood parasites, laying their eggs in the nests of other species.
NOT that I would ever be disrespectful of our dear editor of the Bass Coast Post, but I'm a little concerned that she's starting to lose it a bit. Normally cool and collected, she sent a text message the other day: “That f&*# varmint shrieked until nearly midnight and started again at 4.47am. It sounded as if it was just outside my window but probably not. How is your varmint going?”
We knew at once that she was referring to the Koel bird. The true koels, Eudynamys, are a genus of cuckoos from Asia, Australia and the Pacific. They are large sexually dimorphic cuckoos that eat fruits and insects and have loud distinctive calls. They are brood parasites, laying their eggs in the nests of other species.
I was out in the garden the previous night with Liane so I knew what she was talking about (our gardens are a fair enough walk but not too far as the crow (or koel) flies). I started to imitate the koel call and found to Liane’s dismay that it was replying. She warned me that it would come down and want to fornicate with me.
“That’s all I need. A bird shagging my head.”
“That’s all I need. A bird shagging my head.”
Young koel, bottom right, nags his or her much smallerred wattlebird foster parent, above. Photo: Liane Arno
We are fairly sure our koel has already made a deposit in a wattlebird’s nest. This wattlebird loves our grevilleas but has taken to, uncharacteristically, nicking mince scraps left by the magpies, which we suspect is to feed its enormous koel chick.
It wasn’t “Koel” that Richard Davis called out in 1852, but “Coal!” when he discovered this graphite material at Cape Paterson. The reward for the first workable coalfield discovered in Victoria was £1000. Family legend has it that with his boots tied around his neck and his feet bare but covered with rags so that he would have decent boots to see Lieutenant Governor La Trobe, Richard carried a 25-pound bag of coal on his back in order to seek the reward.
After receiving a warm response from La Trobe, he walked back to Kilcunda carrying two 50-pound bags of flour. Unable to carry 100 pounds of flour in one go, he walked 100 yards with one bag, then went back to retrieve the second – for over 100 miles! It took over a decade for him to be paid, and then it was only £400.
In English “coal” not only means the raw product but also means a glowing or charred piece of fuel, which of course isn’t necessarily coal. Homophone is the technical term where words are spelled and pronounced the same but have different meanings, making our English language constantly confusing.
Old King Cole was a merry old soul and the nursery rhyme character is possibly derived at least partly from “Coel Hen” or “Coel the Old”, a Welsh-born king in the 4th or 5th century. As far as surnames/family names go, the name Cole originated in south-west England and was derived from the Old English word coll, which means hill, which indicated the original bearer lived near such a land form.
It wasn’t “Koel” that Richard Davis called out in 1852, but “Coal!” when he discovered this graphite material at Cape Paterson. The reward for the first workable coalfield discovered in Victoria was £1000. Family legend has it that with his boots tied around his neck and his feet bare but covered with rags so that he would have decent boots to see Lieutenant Governor La Trobe, Richard carried a 25-pound bag of coal on his back in order to seek the reward.
After receiving a warm response from La Trobe, he walked back to Kilcunda carrying two 50-pound bags of flour. Unable to carry 100 pounds of flour in one go, he walked 100 yards with one bag, then went back to retrieve the second – for over 100 miles! It took over a decade for him to be paid, and then it was only £400.
In English “coal” not only means the raw product but also means a glowing or charred piece of fuel, which of course isn’t necessarily coal. Homophone is the technical term where words are spelled and pronounced the same but have different meanings, making our English language constantly confusing.
Old King Cole was a merry old soul and the nursery rhyme character is possibly derived at least partly from “Coel Hen” or “Coel the Old”, a Welsh-born king in the 4th or 5th century. As far as surnames/family names go, the name Cole originated in south-west England and was derived from the Old English word coll, which means hill, which indicated the original bearer lived near such a land form.
My favourite Cole was the one who wrote Cole’s funny picture book. It was originally published in 1879 but I still remember reading it as a kid. Do you?
While used as a surname it is a common first name in America; think Cole Porter.
Then you need to know that one form of cole is also used to refer to lots of brassicas such as broccoli, kale, brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, and kohlrabi as it stems (forgive the pun) from the Latin caulis which meant stem or cabbage. Kale is only a short step away
When caulis found its way into the German language the spelling was changed to kohl which continues to mean cabbage, but the spelling of kohl in English refers to a product used for eye makeup. How confusing for a German boyfriend when asked by his English girlfriend to go out and buy some kohl as she wants to make herself beautiful for him.
If his name was Cole, he might write a haiku:
Coal smoke drifts at dusk,
A koel cries; Cole shades his eyes
From dark kohl’s soft line.
While used as a surname it is a common first name in America; think Cole Porter.
Then you need to know that one form of cole is also used to refer to lots of brassicas such as broccoli, kale, brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, and kohlrabi as it stems (forgive the pun) from the Latin caulis which meant stem or cabbage. Kale is only a short step away
When caulis found its way into the German language the spelling was changed to kohl which continues to mean cabbage, but the spelling of kohl in English refers to a product used for eye makeup. How confusing for a German boyfriend when asked by his English girlfriend to go out and buy some kohl as she wants to make herself beautiful for him.
If his name was Cole, he might write a haiku:
Coal smoke drifts at dusk,
A koel cries; Cole shades his eyes
From dark kohl’s soft line.