Words: Grind, v.

THIS HAS many meanings, among them one diligent, another recreational: of the latter, in 1647, "Digby's Lady takes it ill, that her Lord grinds not at her mill" while Lady Chatterley "had to work the thing herself, grind her own coffee".

A use overlooked in every reference work, however, is a recent one that, in practice, imperils even the celibate. It is the term for nifty skateboarding, rollerblading and the suchlike: we all know that noise - redolent of a V2s cutting out - which has one seeking the wall or gutter, something which can only get worse with the advent of such devices being built into shoes. One Californian manufacturer did not quite realise what he was saying when asserting, "so far we have less than one per cent penetration".