dibbers and wodgers [about gardening]

[susanna76]

Hi,

Here's from Julian Barnes, Pulse:
"[opened the gift package] and saw a line of glass test tubes with corks in the top, a set of plastic bottles containing different coloured liquids, a long plastic spoon, and assorted mysterious dibbers and wodgers."

This is from a short story called Gardeners' World.

What does wodgers mean?

Thank you!

 

[Andygc]

There's some strange things in the package. The narrator doesn't know what they are, and neither do I, but "wodger" is a good nonce word to use with "dibber" (which is, of course, a real garden tool).

 

[susanna76]

Oh. Right Thank you, Andygc!

 

[kajabla]

Well, a "wodge" is a real word, though uncommon. A wodge of something is a decently sized chunk of it, so a wodger could be a tool for taking wodges of things, some kind of trowel. "Wodger" still isn't a real thing, but it could have a meaning the author's inventing on the spot rather than being truly nonsense.

 

[susanna76]

Thank you, kajabla!

 

[Andygc]

Well, a "wodge" is a real word, though uncommon. A wodge of something is a decently sized chunk of it, so a wodger could be a tool for taking wodges of things, some kind of trowel. "Wodger" still isn't a real thing, but it could have a meaning the author's inventing on the spot rather than being truly nonsense.

Who said anything about nonsense? See the OED

nonce-wordn. [one of a number of terms coined by James Murray especially for use in the N.E.D.] a word apparently used only ‘for the nonce’, i.e. on one specific occasion or in one specific text or writer's works.

 

[kajabla]

Oh, sorry! That's a very pretty word, and I'd never seen it before. You said it before I did. Thanks.