Saturday, February 21, 2015

Word of the Day

dalles
 \ dalz \, plural noun;  
1.the rapids of a river running between the walls of a canyon or gorge.

Quotes:
With ropes they tie themselves to the platforms so they won't slip in, Mr. Bowman says, though someone told me the fish make the platforms slippery and if they did fall in the rush of the dalles  they wouldn't survive.
-- Jane Kirkpatrick, "A Light in the Wilderness ," 2014

...we were ordered to return to the Dalles , and on the 16th of November started across the Simcoe mountains.
-- Robert Allen Bennett, "A Small World of Our Own ," 1892

Origin:
Dalles  is an Americanism that comes from the Canadian French word (originally from Normandy) dalle  meaning "sink."

Dictionary.com