bulljowler

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A contributor to a 1912 volume of the Mariner's Mirror nautical journal wrote the following of the term's etymology: :: "This is the name given by Mounts Bay fishermen, to a space in their big boats allotted to the “foot-rope.” At Saint Ives the same thing is called the bulljowder. Some of the men believe this to be a word imported from the East Coast; others say it is old Cornish; and one man assured me that at an auction sale in Lowestoft, he heard the bulljowler described as a mallygog. In a collection of fishing terms made at Mousehole some forty years since, the word appears as bow-jowler, but this does not agree with the present pronunciation. Is it known elsewhere? — R. M. N." :::: — 1912. "Queries: Bulljowler". The Mariner's Mirror v. II. p. 424. A contributor to a 1913 volume of the Mariner's Mirror nautical journal wrote the following of the term's etymology: :: "The variants of this queer, and to me unknown, terms are bulljowler, bulljowder, and bowjowler. It seems fairly obvious that the first syllable represents the bilge, of which both bulge and bowge are variants not long obsolete. Thus the word becomes bulge-owler or bulge-owder. What the last half of it may imply is more difficult. Bailey gives owler as meaning a smuggler, primarily of wool (of which ool and owl are dialect variants); but it is not easy to see that this meaning can have anything to do with the case. It seems easier to suppose that owler is a further corruption of owder, which in its turn may be thought to stand for holder. An l turns into w in some dialects as easily as an initial h is dropped. — G.C." :::: — 1913. "Words and Phrases: Bulljowler". The Mariner's Mirror v. III. p. 53.