Definition of an obscure Word?

Factual Questions
1

Dubisary

OK, I’ll admit it…there are one or two words I don’t know yet.

This is one. Saw it today, used in the context of infrastructure maintenance:
The dubisary was primarily used for tunnel inspection. It also could be used in repairs, but seldom was since scaffolding securely braced was safer.

Dictionary.com drew a blank. Google turned up only three hits; one was an obvious spoof, the other two were in a context of racetrack betting:

    • It is a world of inflated paper currency, dubisaries and other worthless …*
    • … I’ll give you my dubisary: I don’t know that I can pay it this year*

Reading between the lines, the first useage seems to refer to some kind of mobile manlift. The two google hits might refer to some kind of promissory note. I can’t even begin to reconcile the two.

So…is the collective doper-mind able to achieve where google and dictionaries have failed? Has anyone seen the word dubisary before or used it in a sentence? Anyone able to give a precise definition?

A quick answer is not needed, but I’m intrigued. It looks like one of those words I might be able to drop into a conversation sometime, to make myself look smarter that I am. :wink:
SS

2

Just a guess, but was this your source? –

*But once the plant is built, things change. The company uses the
remaining capital to purchase steel, hire engineers, and begin
producing East Frambesian Steel Blue Dubisaries and accessories. *
– http://www.radiobanter.com/showthread.php?t=151158&page=5

If so, I’m guessing that the writer was using it as a made-up name for the product of a made-up company. Since the discussion involved taxes and the national debt, the writer may well have known the financial definition of the word and been using it in a sarcastic sense. (I found the above quote by searching for “infrastructure dubisary” – which returned only 2 hits, one for your post and one for the above.)

3

To make matters worst, here is another definition (found in “all the web”)
Merriam-Webster Online
dubisary (noun) : a particle (identifiable or not) that appears in one’s beverage, either floating or stuck to the side. “Ew, look at this nasty dubisary in my beer!”
www3.merriam-webster.com/opendictionary/newword_search

4

And dogpile fetches me this:

Boat name: Woody’s Dubisary.

Altavista has 14 results, among which:

"Everyone knows if the dubisary isn’t connected to the flammerstam that your key will never come out.

I really don’t think the flux capacitor would cause the key to stick…Have you tried filling the headlight fluid?
Read more at Key Won't Come Out | Page 2 | Cadillac Owners Forum"

“Well, I guess I won’t be resting my hand of the shifter, though I never did until the damn thing started popping out of gear. Then, I had no choice. I either held my hand on it (actually, I built a dubisary to hold it in 5th) or I used 4th gear, which is what ended up happening anyways.”

I don’t know what the relation is between these definitions and the preceding ones.

But I’m getting caught up in this game.

5

I’m more used to hearing it used adjectivally, as in:

“That was very dubisary of you.” :smiley:

Seriously, though, this is starting to smell like the made-up name of a fictional object, kind of like “widget.” Gymnopithys’s first cite is obviously facetious, but follows this pattern.

I can see how from there it might have migrated to be used to describe a worthless scrip or IOU.

That second Cadillac owner seems to be using it to mean “jury-rigged doohickey,” but that’s his business.

Even so, the scaffolding-substitute meaning is baffling.

And I hereby declare the thing-in-a-beverage definition specious. You’re welcome.

6

It isn’t in the OED.

Which means that to all intents it is not a recognized English word.

It is probably made up, or perhaps a typo.

7

A dubisary is an ambassador of weed.

8

Having done some further research… It looks like the dopers have done it again!

The Google hits I found were both from the same source, an archived copy of:
"A quarter race in Kentucky: and other sketches, illustrative of scenes, characters, and incidents, throughout “the universal Yankee nation” (1854)

by Porter, William Trotter, 1809-1858

The book was written in the vernacular of the time, which indicates “dubisary” has been around for awhile.

*so, as you don’t want
the money, I’ll negotiate to suit you exactly ; I’ll give
you my dubisary: I don’t know that I can pay it this
year, unless the crap of hemp turns out well ; but if I
can’t this year, I will next year probably ; and I’ll tell
you exactly my principle if a man waits with me like
a gentleman, I’m sure to pay him when I’m ready;

My respect
for Mr. Wash’s dirk-knife, together with my perceiving
there was nothing else to be had, induced me to ex
press my entire satisfaction with Mr. Wash’s dubisary,
hoping at the same time that at least enough of hemp
would grow that year. He proposed that I should let
him have five dollars more for a stake, but on my de
clining, he said, Well, there is no harm in mentioning
it."*

Did a little further searching in the archives of the forum where I saw the word first, and found this description for the “scaffolding device”:

“I wondered when that would come up. The word is dubisary (du-ba-saree);
it’s an uncommon word that just means “thingamajig” or whatever you want
it to mean. My dad used to caution me when walking on ice, because I
might “slip and fall on my dubisary…” In the case of Nucrag, it’s
scaffolding on wheels used for tunnel maintenance. I don’t know if
that’s a universal name for such a device or not.”

So…it seems dubisary is a colloquialism for “A promissary note or makeshift device, usually of questionable value”

Thanks all, for the input
SS

ETA Special thanks to Earl Snake Hips Tucker for the most novel definition

9

It’s a perfectly cromulent word!