| 释义 |
▪ I. potch, n.|pɒtʃ|
Also † potsh.
In full potch opal. Opal that has no play of colour and is of no value; also, a flat colour characteristic of this; potch and or with colour (see quot. 1971).
1897Jrnl. & Proc. R. Soc. New South Wales XXX. 256 The dull, milky, and opaque stones are called ‘potsh’ by the miners. 1900in J. S. Gunn Opal Terminol. (1971) 35 Demand for potch with color being active. 1902Chambers's Jrnl. V. 494/2 ‘It's only potch, an' not worth a drink, the whole durned lot.’.. Occasionally I cut through seams of opal matrix carrying stones of beautiful red tints and sometimes of a peculiar blend of almost every colour. For all these Dan had but one contemptuous name, ‘potch’, which is the miner's term for inferior opal. 1912Empire Mag. Nov. 282/1 A pocketful of ‘potch-and-colour’—that is, ‘potch’ with a slight ‘colour’ of opal. 1921[see knobby n.]. 1936A. Russell Gone Nomad vii. 58 The value of a pocket varied according to the size, quantity and quality of the opal stones it contained... ‘Potch’ or immature opal could be found by the ton. 1940[see noodle v.2]. 1958M. D. Berrington Stones of Fire 24 ‘What's potch?’..‘Opal crystal without fire. Looks some⁓thing like pieces of crockery.’ 1962R. Webster Gems I. x. 189 The colourful precious opal is found in irregular patches in the thin veins of potch—the miners' term for opal which may be colourful but not showing the play of colour, or as they say ‘not alive’—which fills the joints and bedding planes of the sandstone. 1971J. S. Gunn Opal Terminol. 35 Potch-and-colour, potch-with-colour, opal potch with a slight colour of opal showing through. 1976Sci. Amer. Apr. 94/3 The small amounts of precious opal are accompanied by an enormous quantity of valueless ‘potch’ opal, which looks like opal but shows no colour and is generally discarded by the miners... Electron microscopy shows that it usually consists of rounded particles of silica that are not well enough shaped, sized or ordered to form light-diffracting arrays.
▪ II. potch, v.|pɒtʃ|
[ad. Yiddish patshn, ad. G. patschen to slap.]
trans. To slap or smack; hence potch n., ˈpotching ppl. a.
1892[see poach v.2 1 d]. 1966R. H. Rimmer Harrad Experiment (1967) 150, I told you, Saul, Harry's not too old for a potch before he becomes a paskudnick. 1968L. Rosten Joys of Yiddish 293 Don't be fresh or I'll potch you. 1969K. Vonnegut Slaughterhouse-Five iv. 73 Her palm on his little jelly belly made potching sounds.
▪ III. potch, potcher
var. poach v.2, poacher1, esp. in paper-making. |