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The Learning Kingdom's Cool Word of the Day for June 29, 1999
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ullage [n. UL-ij]
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When a cask or barrel is filled with liquid, it can only be filled as far
as the bung-hole. The amount of space that is left unfilled is the ullage.
It is also the space between the top of the liquid and the bottom of the
cork in a bottle of wine.
This word traces to the Latin word for the bung-hole, which was oculus
(metaphorically, an eye). The word passed into Old French as oeil, and
from that came the verb ouiller (to fill up a barrel to the bung-hole).
The ouillage was the remaining space. The word passed into Anglo-Norman,
and then into English.
Here are more "eye" words from oculus:
oculist: an eye doctor
ocular: relating to the eye
ocellus: a small simple eye (as on an insect); an eyelike marking
pinochle: card game in which "two-eyed" face cards have special meaning
monocle: a seeing lens for one eye
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