Hal's instant "clinker" etymology — lexical prodigy on display for Avril

timeline_event

texture · Aug YDAU recalled

When: UNDATED recalled — late August YDAU
What: When Avril feigns aphasiac finger-snapping over the word for grill-residue, Hal supplies it instantly and pedantically: "Clinkers... From klinker low German and klinckaerd old Dutch, to sound, ring, nominated to substantive around 1769: a hard mass formed by the fusion of the earthy impurities of like coal, iron ore, limestone." His OED-brain is reflexive, but the display is fraught — "He hated it that she could even dream he'd be taken in by the aphasiac furrowing... and then that he's always so pleased to play along. Is it showing off if you hate it?" A lexical-prodigy artifact laced with self-disgust.