This is a great word. Let it roll around in your mind for a minute. Sloose. Say it out loud. Notice how your mouth and tongue have to twist and contort to make the sounds come together. Sloose.
Apparently, “sluice” comes from Latin via Old French, but I like it because of its onomatopoeic quality. It’s best as a verb, where it describes water traveling down something. It’s the aquatic version of whoosh; a gush of water just barreling towards… somewhere.
This video is a fun way to visualize sluice both as a noun (the thing that controls the flow of water) and a verb. It also has a great Nanook of the North “documentary” quality since you’re left wondering, who filmed this? Who framed the shots? Did they storyboard before they went out? How much planning went into the video? (If you want to see just sluicing, skip to about 7m16s, but the whole thing is oddly mesmerizing.)
It’s existential shit like this that keeps my mind working at all hours of the night.
Le cul entre les deux chaises 