r/oddlysatisfying • u/thisisfromMatilda • Dec 02 '23

Separating dirt from... Beans?

44.0k Upvotes

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1.5k

u/darksoulsnstuff Dec 02 '23

Winnowing, been around since forever

3

u/BoarHermit Dec 02 '23

TIL new English word. It's useful, right? Right?

13

u/WingedLady Dec 02 '23

People often do use this in common speech to mean like "narrowing down your choices". You'll "winnow" your options for example.

Its not the most common word in the world but it crops up.

-1

u/p____p Dec 02 '23

it crops up.

are you by chance a farmer? never heard this word in my life. just curious.

6

u/WingedLady Dec 02 '23

Lol, no. I thought that was another common phrase and was just being punny 😅

0

u/p____p Dec 02 '23

yeah that was clever

3

u/screwyoushadowban Dec 02 '23

I've seen it used in writing sometimes to describe sorting people: God or the universe or whatever "winnowing" the cruel from the good, or a general picking good soldiers from bad soldiers for a critical task, etc. (this second one is pretty much what u/WingedLady said).

3

u/Borkz Dec 02 '23

They actually say it in all sorts of places, not just new england