6 February 2016

quinch

verb

To move, stir, make a slight noise; to start, flinch.

Origin

Early 16th cent.; earliest use found in Promptorium Parvulorum. Origin uncertain. Perhaps a variant of quetch, perhaps by association with winch; or perhaps a variant of either winch or wince.

Example

It was a subtle quinch but enough to alert the bird to the cat’s presence.

Today’s quote

The aim of education is the knowledge, not of facts, but of values.

– William S. Burroughs

On this day

6 February 1851 – Black Thursday bushfires that swept across Victoria, Australia. The fires killed 12 people and scorched a quarter of Victoria, approximately 5,000,000 hectares (12.5 million acres). More than 1 million sheep died. It is the largest Australian bushfire in a populous region in recorded history.

6 February 1938 – ‘Black Sunday’, when freak waves strike Bondi Beach, Australia, dragging swimmers hundreds of metres out to sea. Five people drowned and 250 needed rescuing.

6 February 1945 – birth of Bob Marley, Jamaican reggae singer and musician. Died 11 May 1981.

6 February 1952 – King George VI dies, resulting in new sovereign being Queen Elizabeth II.

6 February 1971 – Alan Shephard becomes the first man to hit golf balls on the moon. He smuggled the club and balls on board lunar spacecraft, Apollo 14, by hiding them inside his suit.