{"id":8621,"date":"2006-03-03T14:52:19","date_gmt":"2006-03-03T19:52:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pioneergirl.com\/blog\/?p=8621"},"modified":"2016-05-04T21:07:21","modified_gmt":"2016-05-05T01:07:21","slug":"awl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.pioneergirl.com\/blog\/archives\/8621","title":{"rendered":"awl"},"content":{"rendered":"

A pointed instrument for piercing small holes, as in leather or wood; used by shoemakers, saddlers, cabinet-makers, &c. The blade is differently shaped and pointed for different uses, as in the brad-awl, saddler\u2019s-awl, shoemaker\u2019s-awl, &c. \u2014 Webster, 1882<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/p>\n

“I had to warm the butter,” [Ma] she said. “It was frozen as hard as a rock. I could not cut it. I hope Mr. Boast brings us some more soon. This is what the cobbler threw at his wife.”<\/em><\/p>\n

     
\nW<\/span>hile there were a number of places where Laura Ingalls Wilder might have mentioned an awl or the use of the tool, it only appears in a humorous play on words where “awl” is a homonym for “all,” meaning the whole quantity or amount. Carrie and Grace are too young to know what Ma means, and Laura and Mary each have a different word in mind. Do you remember what Laura guessed?<\/p>\n

According to the Oxford English Dictionary<\/em>, Laura’s reply (the “last,” meaning the end of the existing butter, a “last” also being an item used by cobblers) is believed to be the usual reply to the joke, as “This is what the cobbler threw at his wife” was a fairly common joke in the 19th century and didn’t require knowledge of homonyms. <\/p>\n

An awl was a pointed instrument used for piercing holes; they come in a variety of sizes and can have a straight or curved tip, depending on use. It pre-dated the sewing needle but never replaced it, although there are awls which have a hole in them and are threaded like a needle. The awl was widely used to punch holes in leather or canvas or hides, when sinews or leather thongs were used for lacing. A 19th century advertisement is shown at right.<\/p>\n

     
\n
\nawl<\/strong> (FB 23)
\n     \u201cthat was his awl,\u201d describing the last of the butter (TLW 14)
\n     <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

pokes holes<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8624,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[646],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.pioneergirl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8621"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.pioneergirl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.pioneergirl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.pioneergirl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.pioneergirl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8621"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"http:\/\/www.pioneergirl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8621\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10823,"href":"http:\/\/www.pioneergirl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8621\/revisions\/10823"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.pioneergirl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8624"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.pioneergirl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.pioneergirl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.pioneergirl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}