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Subject: What does this word mean?

Shoshanna opened this issue on Apr 07, 2003 · 7 posts
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Shoshanna ( ) posted Mon, 07 April 2003 at 9:00 PM · edited Sun, 21 July 2024 at 4:11 AM

Could someone please tell me what the word gnarly means? I have seen this applied to the most enormous bruise I've ever seen, a skateboard and a fine art photo. It's not in my dictionary. Shanna :-) puzzled


dialyn ( ) posted Mon, 07 April 2003 at 9:16 PM

Oh, dudette. That's surfer slang. Yow. It's a gnarley wave, dude. Gnarly means "treacherous." An acceptable synonym is "hairy." Surf punks use gnarly to refer to any wave over two feet or any woman of prodigious size. Still, you may refer to a man or woman of great importance as "Your Gnarlyness."

dialyn ( ) posted Mon, 07 April 2003 at 9:19 PM

P.S. I think gnarly has come to mean anything large or notable. More or less. I'm not a surfer so I bow to more reliable sources.

pakled ( ) posted Tue, 08 April 2003 at 11:32 AM

it can also refer to wood that has a lot of knots in it, as I remember (or misremember..;).

I wish I'd said that.. The Staircase Wit

anahl nathrak uth vas betude doth yel dyenvey..;)

tresamie ( ) posted Tue, 08 April 2003 at 3:09 PM

In Fractal Art, there is a class of coloring algorithm that is called 'Gnarl' that gives a swirling effect.

Fractals will always amaze me!

Shoshanna ( ) posted Tue, 08 April 2003 at 5:33 PM

So, you know I'm not a surfer then? Thanks for the input. I knew about the gnarled old trunks of trees defintion, I just couldn't quite figure out how to apply that meaning to the disparate collection of objects I keep seeing it used to describe. Shanna :-) Resolving never to refer to anyone as "Your Gnarlyness" which shouldn't be too difficult a resolve to keep :-)


dialyn ( ) posted Tue, 08 April 2003 at 8:01 PM

Cowabunga, beach bunny, that is totally tubular. Hanging ten in San Diego. :)

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