Lloyd wonders about the meaning of the fine old British verb "plump."
The Oxford English Dictionary gives:Plump v. late M.E., [(M) LG plumpen;; M (Du) plompen: fall into water...] ... 2. fig. of statements etc. Direct, blunt, straightforward, unqualified, "flat" 1789.
Hence my finally unqualified choice of T.S. Eliot's (known among contemporaries such as Dylan Thomas as The Bishop) lines to exemplify "the highest achievement of research."
While we are on the meanings and derivations of words, Daniel's fishermen are commonly referred to in Hong Kong as "Tanka," but this term is pejorative. Their own term for themselves "Seui seuhng yahn" (literally "water above person" in Cantonese) has been romanized using the Yale transcription system, though without tone marks because of the restrictions of ASCII script.
I trust these explanations have muddied the waters sufficiently.