different between pottle vs dottle

English

Etymology

From Middle English potell, potel, from Old French potel, diminutive of pot; see more at pot.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?p?t?l/
• Rhymes: -?t?l

Noun

pottle (plural pottles)

1. (archaic) A former unit of volume, equivalent to half a gallon, used for liquids and corn; a pot or drinking vessel of around this size.
   • c. 1604, William Shakespeare, Othello, Act II, Scene 3,^[1]

     Why, he drinks you, with facility, your Dane dead drunk; he sweats not to overthrow your Almain; he gives your Hollander a vomit, ere the next pottle can be filled.

   • c. 1605, Thomas Dekker, The Honest Whore Part 2, London: Nathaniel Butter, 1630,^[2]

     a pottle of Greeke wine

   • 1826, Walter Scott, Woodstock, Chapter 10,^[3]

     And yonder sate Desborough with a dry pottle of sack before him, which he had just emptied, and which, though the element in which he trusted, had not restored him sense enough to speak, or courage enough to look over his shoulder.

2. (New Zealand) A watertight receptacle, typically for potato chips, yoghurt or other foodstuffs.
3. (archaic) A small pot or other receptacle, e.g. for strawberries.
   • 1851, Henry Mayhew, London Labour and the London Poor, Volume I, “Of the tricks of costermongers,”^[4]

     Strawberry pottles are often half cabbage leaves, a few tempting strawberries being displayed on the top of the pottle.

   • 1861, Charles Dickens, Great Expectations, Chapter 21,^[5]

     He had a paper-bag under each arm and a pottle of strawberries in one hand, and was out of breath.

   • 2005, Dan Keding and Amy Douglas (eds.), English Folktales, World Folklore Series, Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, ?ISBN, page 21,^[6]

     "I was wondering whether you’ve got such a thing as a pottle of brains to spare?"

Synonyms

• (a receptacle for strawberries): punnet (Britain, Canada, Australia)

English

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?d?t?l/

Rhymes: -?t?l

Etymology 1

From Middle English dottel, dottelle (“a plug or tap of a vessel”), a diminutive of Old English dott (> English dot (“a point”)), equivalent to dot +? -le. Related to Old English dyttan (“to stop up, clot”), Dutch dot (“a knot, lump, clod”), Low German Dutte (“a plug”). More at dit.

Alternative forms

• dottel

Noun

dottle (plural dottles)

1. A plug or tap of a vessel.
2. A small rounded lump or mass.
3. The still burning or wholly burnt tobacco plug in a pipe.
   • 1957, Lawrence Durrell, Justine, Faber p. 96:

     one hand guards the burning dottle of my pipe from the force of the wind

   • 1981, John Gardner, Freddy's Book, Abacus 1982, p. 38:

     I clenched my pipe in my right fist and poked at the dottle busily with various fingers, first one then another, of my left hand.

   • 1984, Alan Dean Foster, The Hour of the Gate, page 89:

     He tapped out the dottle on the deck, locked the steering oar in position, and commenced repacking his pipe.
4. (Tyneside) A baby's dummy, pacifier.

Translations

References

• Newcastle 1970s, Scott Dobson and Dick Irwin, [1]
• Frank Graham (1987) The New Geordie Dictionary, ?ISBN
• Northumberland Words, English Dialect Society, R. Oliver Heslop, 1893–4

Etymology 2

Related to dote, dotard.

Adjective

dottle (comparative more dottle, superlative most dottle)

1. (Scotland) Stupid or senile.
   • 1893: David Herschell Edwards, One Hundred Modern Scottish Poets: With Biographical and Critical Notices, volume 15, page 403

     When days and years proclaim you’re old?—
     ?A dottle, cripple, gouty fellow,
     Then for support you can lay hold
     ?O’ the upright of your umberella.

Noun

dottle (plural dottles)

1. (Scotland) A dotard.

Synonyms

• dodipole, dotel; see also Thesaurus:dotard

Anagrams

• Dettol, lotted, tolted