Replies to post #56193 on North Bay Resources Inc (NBRI)

[alj14]

Good point, Autopov. It's not good for the reputation of the board if spelling errors affecting key technical words creep in.

The most complete of the etymological dictionaries, C.T. Onions' Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology has this entry:, keeping min mind that "lode" is an important word in the history of science, comprising geology, astronomy, physics and chemistry:

lode: way, journey [Old English; watercourse; loadstone XVI] [...] lodestar: pole atar, guiding star. XIV (Ch.); cf. ON. leithastjarna, MHG. leit(e)sterne.

For a lexical definition of "mother lode", see the New Oxford Dictionary of English: noun Mining a principal vein of an ore or mineral.

Incidentally, the word "load" has a long history as a slang usage centering on male sexuality (especially in indicating sperm). See also the definition of load (first use in 1937) as "Applied to a bout of venereal infection" in the Oxford dictionary of Slang. Talk about "mother load" sounds more than a bit obscene, as well as being plain wrong.

I post this as a sidelight only. I found Northcal's report on the Gary Clifton lecture an excellent contribution. There is one very frequent poster here who has a chronic problem with "lode" versus "load".

It's motherlode, not motherload.