Just realised bork is not spelled bork

[merryhouse]

Meandering mind suddenly put two threads together.

The word "balk", frequently encountered in my reading, which indicates a feeling of revulsion is not pronounced like a slightly-mangled "bulk" but actually rhymes with walk and talk.

The word "bork" which I have heard in various places is not, as I had assumed, dialectal and is not actually spelled that way.

I've been reading for 48 years

A bork is the noise a small dog makes yes?

@TrollTheRespawnJeremy

A bork is the noise a small dog makes yes?

No, I think that is a bark! 🤔🤣

@TrollTheRespawnJeremy

Eh... no.

I understood bork to be an error/mistake. "Tim's borked the rota again"
That might just be a local thing though.
Balk is different in pronunciation and meaning

Is balk not said as ball-k? (As in a ball with a k at the end)

I've never heard of balk as a word?? Revulsion?

Isn't it a regional variant of boak? Maybe with the slight nuance of boak meaning something horrible is making you sick whereas bork (sometimes spelled boilk) is when something did taste nice, but you've just eaten too much of it?

I've heard of baulk but that means reluctant/hesitant

I don't think balk rhymes with walk. It's more like the beginning of baulderdash - but baul-k.

There's also the baulk end of a snooker table - the 'D' where the green, brown and yellow are placed at the start of the game.

@Gatekeeper

I've heard of baulk but that means reluctant/hesitant

Exactly. Baulk.

Boak is something that makes you sick.
Balk is to be unwilling or hesitant.

Borking is wrecking something. Balking is being put off something.
There's also boak, which means vomit-inducing...

You can 'balk' at something - as in, not want to do it.

Bork is not a real word, and I'm not sure what context you've seen it in, so can't help there. But it doesn't mean the same as above

As in "He balked at the prospect"

I thought baulk was the usual spelling?

@Gatekeeper
Baulk is the traditional british spelling but balk is a variant which is becoming more common.

And neighter rhymes with walk or talk.

I always thought it was "I balk at that suggestion"
And Boak/boke is to be sick or retching

Never heard or bork to do with anything nevermind a dog! :-)

Never heard or bork to do with anything nevermind a dog! :-)

Borking is what Sean Connery's dog used to do.

The OED gives both balk and baulk as alternatives. But still no bork!

Baulk - refuse to do something

Bork - recent made up word meaning to cock something up

@WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll

Merriam-Webster has this for 'bork':

US politics, informal
: to attack or defeat (a nominee or candidate for public office) unfairly through an organized campaign of harsh public criticism or vilification

Apparently, it's derived from the name of an American judge called Robert Bork, who was horrifically borked back in 1987.

Balk is the spelling mainly used in the US and Canada, baulk in the UK ans Australia. As night follows day other anglophone countries will use one or the other.

Either ball-k or balk-to-rhyme-with-chalk-and-walk seem to be accepted pronunciations.

We would say and write bolk if as in revulsion or to gag at something