card spittle

1) A spittle was originally a small spade, and that meaning survived in Yorkshire into the late eighteenth century at least (OED).

It came also to be used of the peel or ‘shovel’ used by bakers, probably because of its shape, and that analogy may explain the rare use of card spittle: 1699-1700 fanned the fire with a card spittle.

dates 1699-1700

Related Content Loading...

Photo by Kreuzschnabel CC BY-SA 3.0