Happy Friday! Today’s word of the day at dictionary.com is “Sinker”. It’s a fun word. It’s one of those words with several meanings:

1. a weight used to sink a fishing line or sounding line.

2. BASEBALL a pitch that drops markedly as it nears home plate.

3. a type of windsurfing board of insufficient buoyancy to support a person unless moving fast.

4. US a doughnut.

5. A cesspool.

6. a (silver) dollar

7. a person or thing that sinks.

8. a person employed in sinking, as one who sinks shafts.

from Dictionary.com  and the Fine dictionary.

And you might also be familiar with the idiom, “Hook, Line and Sinker”, a fishing term that incorporates three essential pieces of fishing tackle in angling. Also, in English language, the phrase ‘to swallow something “hook, line and sinker” ‘ is an idiomatic expression to describe a situation where a person or group accepts wholesale and uncritically an idea or set of beliefs. (From Wikipedia) .

There isn’t a whole lot to say about its etymology. It is a very popular word with several spikes in usage through time based on its application. It pretty much means what it implies in all of its incarnations…something that sinks, as in drops or dips low. I have a few Haiku for you today. Have a great weekend!

underground stinkers
vile cesspools called sinkers
an oligarch’s den

hook, line and sinker
how the gullible gobble up lies
of a deceiver

sweetens the palate
sinkers dipped in morning brew
AKA donuts

~kat