Pipe Smoking Vocabulary

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viktor

Might Stick Around
Jan 6, 2024
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Ontario, Canada
Title edited. Regardless of native tongue, one needs to read rule 9 before starting another thread.

English isn't my native tongue, so coming to this forum I had to learn some new words.

dottle -- do you mean gunk? why don't you say so
to sip a pipe?? -- I think it means to smoke the pipe like sipping an expensive drink, but I still have trouble coming to senses with this one
cadence -- my favorite, here it means the pace of smoking but look at the word's definition: Dictionary.com | Meanings & Definitions of English Words - https://www.dictionary.com/browse/cadence

Can you add more? Cheers!
 
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lraisch

Part of the Furniture Now
Jul 4, 2011
628
1,226
Granite Falls, Washington state
Don't get too hung up on finding an exact meaning for such terms.

For instance, How 'Cadence' Became a Business Term - https://www.merriam-webster.com/wordplay/words-were-watching-cadence
As you can see the word has come to mean a regular interval and I doubt anyone is using a metronome to smoke their pipe.

Dottle is another imprecise term generally referring to the unburned or partially burned residue at the bottom of a bowl. "Gunk" would generally imply that something is wet, which may or may not be the case with dottle.

Sipping implies a gentle inhalation, as opposed to say "taking a drag" on a cigarette.
 

Winnipeger

Lifer
Sep 9, 2022
1,288
9,670
Winnipeg
Also...since we're on the topic of vocabulary, most of the vocabulary used on this forum is correct with regard to pipes and pipe smoking. You'll quickly be corrected by the language police if you call a pipe's stummel a "bowl", for example. And once again, a "piper" is someone who plays the bagpipes. One who engages in pipe smoking is a "pipe smoker".
 
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viktor

Might Stick Around
Jan 6, 2024
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Ontario, Canada
No, dottle is an English word meaning "unburned and partially burned tobacco in the bowl of a pipe".

I wonder how English got that specific. dictionary.com says: ORIGIN OF DOTTLE: 1815–25; dial. dot small lump (probably identical with dot1) + -le. Makes little sense to me.
 

Duck

Can't Leave
Aug 28, 2021
439
2,339
Edinburgh
Dottle is any unburned tobacco left when a pipeful of tobacco has been smoked. It can be the odd crispy bit mixed in with the ash, or a soggy plug when moisture has accumulated in the bowl. It's a specific word for that.

Sip is a metaphor.

Cadence is a technical term in poetry, not just free verse. It's to do with the number of syllables in a phrase, and how that affects the rhythm and pace. For example 'slow and easy' forms to syllables from three words, you could fit 'quick and fast' into the same line. That's three words of the same length, but three definite syllables. The result, each phrase sounds like its meaning. Now, say each phrase and see how you breathe as you say them. Hence the term being used to describe pacing your breaths as you smoke a pipe.
 
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lraisch

Part of the Furniture Now
Jul 4, 2011
628
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Granite Falls, Washington state
No, dottle is an English word meaning "unburned and partially burned tobacco in the bowl of a pipe".
I refer to it as imprecise because another term may also be used,

"Sherlock Holmes was, as I expected, lounging about his sitting room in his dressing-gown, reading the agony column of The Times and smoking his before-breakfast pipe, which was composed of all the plugs and dottles left from his smokes of the day before".
 
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viktor

Might Stick Around
Jan 6, 2024
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Ontario, Canada
One more, another day I asked how to fill empty cigarettes only to find out they are called tubes. Would've never thought of that. Another word learned :)
 
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