I bought myself a Christmas present and as there's no surprise in a present for yourself I've decided to start using it early. It's a desk calendar for 2004 called

Jeffrey Kacirk's Forgotten English : A 366 Day Calendar of Vanishing Vocabulary and Foklore.

I'm intending to post the words from it here and rather than wait until January I'll start now. The days will be a little out of step until the end of the year but never mind.
I'll only post the folklore sections if they are especially amusing.

The word for today is deosculate which is quite appropriate to our birthday celebration for CJ meaning, as it does, kissing with eagerness.

It comes from Edward Phillips's New World of English Words, 1658.

Why should I let the toad work
Squat on my life ?
Can't I use my wit as a pitchfork
And drive the brute off ?
Read all about my travels around the world here.
Read even more of my travel writing and poems on my weblog.

"It's a lesson that's best learnt when young:
"You can go kiss the bride but don't slip her the tongue!"

(Wrote that when I was about 10 or 12.)


And as far as kissing with eagerness is concerned, if you're doing it in any other fashion, should you even be doing it at all??

quote:

---

And as far as kissing with eagerness is concerned, if you're doing it in any other fashion, should you even be doing it at all??

---

So, tell me, CJ, when your elderly aunt slobberily (my own coinage; BTW, I know there is a word for wet kisses, but I can't think of it.) kisses you, do you await the kiss eagerly?

Thanks, Bob, for doing this because I have been missing what I call our pure word posts.

king's ex

A call, abbreviated of "king's excuse" used by children to stop a game for a moment. In playing "base", when a boy falls down and so keeps himself from being caught he usually says King's ex! which serves him as protection.

-Sylva Clapin's Dictionary of Americanisms 1902

Americanisms, eh ? Have any of the US posters ever heard this ?


The story in the folklore section today is also amusing. I'll paraphrase for brevity.

George II was at the London premiere of Handel's Messiah. When the chorus sang "And he shall reign for ever and ever" he, not being perticularly strong in English (German was his first language) mistakenly thought they were referring to him and stood to take the accolades of the people. Wndering what was happening everyone else stood and this has - so it says here - led to standing becoming a custom at performances of the Messiah.

It is of course folklore so probably untrue.

Why should I let the toad work
Squat on my life ?
Can't I use my wit as a pitchfork
And drive the brute off ?
Read all about my travels around the world here.
Read even more of my travel writing and poems on my weblog.

ullapse

An explanation when anything goes wrong.

-Thoams Sternberg's Dialect and Folklore of Northamptonshire 1851

Why should I let the toad work
Squat on my life ?
Can't I use my wit as a pitchfork
And drive the brute off ?
Read all about my travels around the world here.
Read even more of my travel writing and poems on my weblog.

First, Bob, I am enjoying this thread a great deal. Thanks.

No, I have never heard of "king's ex" or "king's excuse." Anyone else?

I couldn't find the word "ullapse" in dictionary.com nor in Onelook. From your definition, I don't understand how you would use it. It is the explanation when something goes wrong?

I'm afraid I can't clarify the usage. I'm simply quoting the calendar that I have. It is an obscure dialect word though so I'm not surprised that it isn't in dictionaries.

For example here in my region we use the word "suck" for what would in the US usually be called "candy" but I'll bet not many dictionaries list it with that meaning.

Why should I let the toad work
Squat on my life ?
Can't I use my wit as a pitchfork
And drive the brute off ?
Read all about my travels around the world here.
Read even more of my travel writing and poems on my weblog.

gelt

A lunatic, adapted from the Irish geilt, a mad or frenzied person. According to the Old Norse work Konungs Skuggsja, a gelt was one who went mad with fear in battle, and thenceforth lived in the woods like a wild beast.

- Sir James Murray's New English Dixtionary, 1901

Why should I let the toad work
Squat on my life ?
Can't I use my wit as a pitchfork
And drive the brute off ?
Read all about my travels around the world here.
Read even more of my travel writing and poems on my weblog.

What a perfect word for the Hannukah season. During Hannukah, children receive the gift of money, or Hannukah gelt.

Of course, in the U.S. that has expanded to gifts in order to compete with Christmas.

[BTW, since the calendar has "forgotten English words," I am dying to hear if it has "epicaricacy!"]

[This message was edited by Kalleh on Mon Dec 22nd, 2003 at 12:11.]

Under the heading of "gelt = money" is the old term "Ph.G" meaning a college degree a woman seeks when she is less interested in acquiring knowledge than she is in meeting (and hopefully marrying) a man with high earning potential.

It stands for "Papa has Gelt" (though I don't think I've heard this term used for some 20 years or more).

I like today's word even if there is very little about it on the calendar.

songewarie

The interpretting of dreams.

- James Halliwell's Dictionary of Archaic and Provincial Words 1855

It is a real word though because searching with Google gives this as the top hit.

The relevant passage is about two thirds of the way down the page.

And also for Piers þe Plowman - ful pencif in herte
And which a pardon Piers hadde - al þe peple to conforte
And how þe preest inpugned it - wiþ two propre wordes
Ac I haue no sauour in Songewarie - for I se it ofte faille
Caton and Canonistres - counseillen vs to leue
To sette sadnesse in Songewarie - for sompnia ne cures

Ac for þe book bible - bereþ witnesse
How Daniel diuined þe dreem of a kyng
That was Nabugodonosor nempned of clerkes

As for what that all means, your guess is as good as mine I'm afraid, although it isn't that hard to work out with a little thought.

Why should I let the toad work
Squat on my life ?
Can't I use my wit as a pitchfork
And drive the brute off ?
Read all about my travels around the world here.
Read even more of my travel writing and poems on my weblog.

First, Bob, an observational comment regarding your latest signature: When I first look at your signature, 2 words always pop out at me: "squat" and "pitchfork." You can imagine what thoughts emerge from that!

Now, back to "Ullapse." I believe I have exhausted all attempts to find out more about that word. It is not in Google or in any of the online dictionaries, and my all-knowing logophile friend hasn't heard of it. There is nowhere else to turn!

First of all, I'm not surprised that ullapse doesn't appear. It is from a dictionary of an oobscure rural dialect published a hundred and fifty years ago and, as with many regional words, it's unlikely that it ever made it out of the immediate area of it's use and into the wider world.

Now today's seasonally themed word is

yule-hole

The last hole to which a man could stretch his belt at a Christmas feast.

- Alexander Warrack's Scots Dialect Dictionary, 1911

Why should I let the toad work
Squat on my life ?
Can't I use my wit as a pitchfork
And drive the brute off ?
Read all about my travels around the world here.
Read even more of my travel writing and poems on my weblog.

I missed yesterday so here are two more words from the calendar.

cates

Provisions, delicacies. Said to be a corruption of delicates, or dainty meats; more probably from French acheter, to buy.

- Rev. Percy Smith's Glossary of Terms and Phrases, 1883

climacteric

By the climacteric system seven years was declared to be the termination of childhood; fourteen the term of puberty;twenty one of adult age;thirty five as the height of physical and bodily strength. At forty nine the person reached the height of his mental strength; at sixty three he was said to have reached thegrand climacteric.

T. Ellwood Zell's Popular Encyclopedia of Knowledge And Language, 1871

Unusually for this calendar there is also a supporting quote for that second one.

When about forty years old she [Joanna Southcott] assumed the pretensions of prophetess and declared herself to be the woman mentioned in the twelfth Book of Revelation. She asserted that she had received a divine appointment to be the mother of the Messiah after she had passed her grand climacteric.

Chamber's Book of Days (1864)

Why should I let the toad work
Squat on my life ?
Can't I use my wit as a pitchfork
And drive the brute off ?
Read all about my travels around the world here.
Read even more of my travel writing and poems on my weblog.

Today I have just had a pint or several at the Skimmington Castle. Who knows what a Skimmington was?

Richard English

Well, I had to look it up. Does that count? It seems to be more of a British word, derived from a skimming ladle, which was wielded by an angry wife. It is an interesting word. I read several sites describing "riding skimmington," which I didn't completely understand. Effigies of guilty parties were paraded down streets on the back of a donkey? The word seems to denote moral outrage.

[This message was edited by Kalleh on Sat Dec 27th, 2003 at 15:26.]

SKIMMINGTON CASTLE is a used car lot in Reigate, Surrey.

¿No?

What an interesting word!

The OED Online defines it as

1. The man or woman personating the ill-used husband or the offending wife in the procession (see 2) intended to ridicule the one or the other. Also transf., a husband whose wife is unfaithful to him; a shrewish woman. Obs.

2. A ludicrous procession, formerly common in villages and country districts, usually intended to bring ridicule or odium upon a woman or her husband in cases where the one was unfaithful to, or ill-treated, the other.

As Kalleh said, you can find several web sites about it. I found in on World Wide Words. If you read a while you'll come across the word shivaree. The AHD has a description of a shivaree under Regional Note. It says it was a Midwestern and Western US custom, but I think it was more widespread than that. I found a site that talks about wedding customs in the Cumberland (Kentucky).

The WWW site says skimmington probably came from skimming ladle, but the AHD says it was "perhaps the name of some notorious scold". I had never heard scold as a noun before, so I looked it up in M-W and found it is "a. one who scolds habitually or persistently b : a woman who disturbs the public peace by noisy and quarrelsome or abusive behavior". The AHD discusses the Word History of scold.

It sounds more likely to me that skimmington came from skimming ladle than from scold.

Tinman

Skimmington

(n.) A word employed in the phrase, To ride Skimmington; that is to ride on a horse with a woman, but behind her, facing backward, carrying a distaff, and accompanied by a procession of jeering neighbors making mock music; a cavalcade in ridicule of a henpecked man. The custom was in vogue in parts of England.

* ** *** ***** ******** ******** ***** *** ** *

Scold

(n.) One who scolds, or makes a practice of scolding; esp., a rude, clamorous woman; a shrew.

[This message was edited by jerry thomas on Sat Dec 27th, 2003 at 1:05.]

I can understand the confusion!

In fact, those scenes are of a meeting of the Surrey Vintage Vehicle Club who chose to gather at the Skimmington Castle which is, as you will appreciate, a pub.

Nobody seems to know why it is thus called and the name does, as several have discovered, mean an unruly procession, apparently often held to shame a scolding woman.

Skimmingtons have not happened for many years, the custom of punishing scolds having died out in England (some might say that's a pity but I wouldn't dare to, of course!)

Richard English

The definition for today's word could hardly be shorter.

capelclawer

Horse-scrubber

- Herbert Coleridge's Dictionary of the Older Words in the English Language, 1863

A search on the internet found a definition as "scurvey fellow" on a site with lots of other good 16th century words so I imagine that "horse scrubber" is meant as some kind of insult in the calendar definition.



Why should I let the toad work
Squat on my life ?
Can't I use my wit as a pitchfork
And drive the brute off ?
Read all about my travels around the world here.
Read even more of my travel writing and poems on my weblog.

Thanks for posting that 16th century dictionary in our Links for Linguaphiles thread, Bob; it's a real gem!

[Though, it doesn't have "epicaricacy." ]

quote:

---

Originally posted by BobHale:

capelclawer

Horse-scrubber

A search on the internet found a definition as "scurvey fellow" on a site with lots of other good 16th century words so I imagine that "horse scrubber" is meant as some kind of insult in the calendar definition.

---

It makes sense. Capel is an obsolete word meaning "horse" or "nag", and clawer is "one who claws" (1603; OED Online), so a capelclawer would be a horse groomer or "horse-scrubber". I don't imagine that was a particularly prestigious job back in the 16th century.

Capel is also spelled caple and capul in the OED Online. It gives quotes from 1290 to 1819.

Tinman

parmateer

An almost obsolete American political term formerly used in Rhode Island as a synonym for "electioneer". Probably derived from the French parler - to speak - via "parliament".

John Farmer's - Americanisms Old And New, 1889


My internet search failed to turn up anything further other than use of Parmateer as a surname.

Why should I let the toad work
Squat on my life ?
Can't I use my wit as a pitchfork
And drive the brute off ?
Read all about my travels around the world here.
Read even more of my travel writing and poems on my weblog.

Very little to say about todays word as it is simple defined with nothing further added on my calendar.

loresman

Teacher (Anglo Saxon)

Charles Mackay's Lost Beauties of the English Language, 1874

It looks more to me as if it should mean "specialist" but Brainy Dictionary also has it has "instructor" as does hyperdictionary (using the 1913 Websters).
There is an example of the use in this poem written in Scots dialect.
Anyone want to hazard a translation ?

Does anyone else here wish they had copies of all these marvelously obscure text books that are quoted ?

Why should I let the toad work
Squat on my life ?
Can't I use my wit as a pitchfork
And drive the brute off ?
Read all about my travels around the world here.
Read even more of my travel writing and poems on my weblog.

I would hazard a guess that it comes from the same root as does the ending "lore" in "folklore".

Richard English

I missed yesterday so two for the price of one today. I haven't found anything firther about either on the internet.

[b[hunch-weather[/b]

Cold weather whicj makes men hunch up their shoulders making themn look hunch-backed.

Rev Robert Forby's Vocabularu of East Anglia 1830

[b]hopshackles[/i]
...apperar to be some kind of penalty imposed on the losers of a race.
"Some runners deserve but the hopshackles if the masters of the game be but right judges.!
Robert Ascham's The schoolmaster 1570

(quoted in Robert Nares's Glossary of Words of English Authors, 1859

Why should I let the toad work
Squat on my life ?
Can't I use my wit as a pitchfork
And drive the brute off ?
Read all about my travels around the world here.
Read even more of my travel writing and poems on my weblog.

I missed yesterday so two for the price of one today. I haven't found anything firther about either on the internet.

hunch-weather

Cold weather which makes men hunch up their shoulders making them look hunch-backed.

Rev Robert Forby's Vocabularu of East Anglia 1830

hopshackles
...apperar to be some kind of penalty imposed on the losers of a race.
"Some runners deserve but the hopshackles if the masters of the game be but right judges.!
Robert Ascham's The schoolmaster 1570

(quoted in Robert Nares's Glossary of Words of English Authors, 1859

Why should I let the toad work
Squat on my life ?
Can't I use my wit as a pitchfork
And drive the brute off ?
Read all about my travels around the world here.
Read even more of my travel writing and poems on my weblog.

No internet hits for today's word either.

eventriqueness

Corpulence: from the Latin ventrem, belly.

Sir James Murray's New English Dictionary, 1897

Why should I let the toad work
Squat on my life ?
Can't I use my wit as a pitchfork
And drive the brute off ?
Read all about my travels around the world here.
Read even more of my travel writing and poems on my weblog.

"Eventriqueness"...Oh, I like that word, though it may be Latinate. It surely is better than "fat!" I am going to try to decrease my "eventriqueness" for my New Year's resolution.

There are two references given for today's word or rather for today's phrase.

old man's milk

A composition of cream, eggs, sugar and whisky.

Joseph Wright's English Dialect Dictionary, 1896

Used by the highlanders after a drinking match.

John Jamieson's Etymological Scottish Dictionary, 1808

In addition I've found this quote on a couple of sites

"I find friendship to be like wine, raw when new, ripened with age, the true old man's milk and restorative cordial". - Thomas Jefferson

and this passage

"But the principal part of the remedy was "old man's milk", which she administered to her patient each day, at twelve o'clock noon precisely. Having taken a good-sized egg, she broke the shell, and dropped the contents of it into a cup, to which she added about twice the same quantity of the richest cream. These two ingredients she beat together with a small pestle until they were thoroughly incorporated. She then added about two-thirds of a wineglassful of the best whisky; and, having poured the mixture into a tumbler, she made Struan drink it."

Why should I let the toad work
Squat on my life ?
Can't I use my wit as a pitchfork
And drive the brute off ?
Read all about my travels around the world here.
Read even more of my travel writing and poems on my weblog.

chankings

Parings of apples or other fruits, or the core or rejected parts of an apple.

The American Dialect Society's Dialect Notes, 1890-1896

The Grandiloquent Dictionary has a slightly different definition

chankings
Pieces of food which are rejected from what is chewed. (spat out)


and Merriam-Webster's Word for the wise has anothe slight varient with

"Most folks know that the process of gathering or seeking nuts is called nutting, but we'll bet you don't know the term for scraps or rejected parts of nuts. They're called chankings, after the dialect verb chank, meaning "to chew noisily or champ."

Why should I let the toad work
Squat on my life ?
Can't I use my wit as a pitchfork
And drive the brute off ?
Read all about my travels around the world here.
Read even more of my travel writing and poems on my weblog.

Tday's expression may have been forgotten by some but not all. With a slightly different meaning to the one given my father still uses it quite often.

comic struck

Struck with amazement, thunderstruck.
(Shropshire)

Joseph Wright's English Dialect Dictionary,1896-1905

My father uses it in the form "struck comical" and in sentences like "Don't mock, you'll be struck comical yourself one day." when someone laughs at something in bad taste or at something that isn't really funny.

The folklore story that is given on the calendar is also word related. I'm not sure of its veracity but here it is anyway.

The playwright John Dennis (1657-1734) wrote a play called Appius and Virginia and for its performance invented a dramatic sound effect simulating thunder. They play was taken off very quickly but the theatre manager liked the sound effect and used it in a subsequent production of Macbeth. Dennis apparently remarked
"See how they use me ! They will not let my play run but they steal my thunder."

Any ideas on the truth of this story ?

Why should I let the toad work
Squat on my life ?
Can't I use my wit as a pitchfork
And drive the brute off ?
Read all about my travels around the world here.
Read even more of my travel writing and poems on my weblog.

I have never seen this before but a search on the internet gives lots of hits for

monkey spoon

a spoon bearing the figure of a monkey carved on the extremity of the handle and given at funerals of great people in the state of New York to the pall-bearers.

M. Schele de Vere's The English of the New World, 1872

The various web sites devoted to the collecting and sale of these curios seem to indicate that the custom was rather more widespread than the definition above suggests.

Why should I let the toad work
Squat on my life ?
Can't I use my wit as a pitchfork
And drive the brute off ?
Read all about my travels around the world here.
Read even more of my travel writing and poems on my weblog.

Pleased I am to find this thread, as I had last year's calendar (a gift), but was too cheap to buy yet another calendar for myself in 2004.

some comments:
1) king's ex is certainly an expression I remember from childhood games of tag, etc.

b) I can't help with ullapse, but one of the words in my backlog is illapse [v] - Now rare
[f. L. illaps-us, pa. pple. of illabi: cf. LAPSE v.] intr. To fall, glide, or slip in. Hence illapsing vbl. n. ; also illapse [n] Now rare
The act of falling, gliding or slipping in.
(Perhaps lapse *is the common root here.)

iii) as far as epicaricacy turning up here, the chances are diminished by the fact that this is at least the 3rd or 4th version of this calendar.

Keep it up, Bob!

An interesting one today.

antomasy

The use of the name of an office, dignity, profession, sience or trade instead of the true name of the person as when "His Majesty" is used for the king.

Rev John Boag's Imperial Lexicon of Every Word Usually Employed In Science, 1850

Don't you just love that book title.

No google hits for this one either I'm afraid.

Why should I let the toad work
Squat on my life ?
Can't I use my wit as a pitchfork
And drive the brute off ?
Read all about my travels around the world here.
Read even more of my travel writing and poems on my weblog.

[This message was edited by BobHale on Sat Jan 10th, 2004 at 9:46.]

I'll quote today's more or less in it's entirity. Once again there are no references to be found in Google.

ben-joltram

Brown bread soaked in skimmed milk, the ploughboy's usual breakfast, served in a capacious wooden bowl...
It might not be altogether absurd to conjecture that in the first part of this strange word an obscure allusion is intended to Benjamin's seven-fold mess, and that the latter part was meant to express the joltering or jolting, of the flatulent micture in the stomach of the young rustic when he resumes his labout in the field after swallowing it.

Rev Robert Forby's Vocabulary of East Anglia, 1830

Why should I let the toad work
Squat on my life ?
Can't I use my wit as a pitchfork
And drive the brute off ?
Read all about my travels around the world here.
Read even more of my travel writing and poems on my weblog.

There's no actual definition given for today's word, just a quote, but the meaning is clear enough and although you don't get the same phenomenon in Starbuck's you do still all too frequently see the modern equivalent in pubs.

coffee-wit

What is the coffeee-wit ? He is a...gossiping, quibbling wretch, and sets people together by the ears over that sober drink, coffee.

William Wycherley's Love In A Wood

Every silver lining has a cloud.
Read all about my travels around the world here.
Read even more of my travel writing and poems on my weblog.

Hmmm, somehow, I would think a coffee-wit would be positive since a coffee klatch is a casual, social gathering of people who also enjoy good coffee. Yet, interestingly, "klatch" comes from the German word "klatschen, meaning to gossip, make a sharp noise, of imitative origin."

So, I guess drinking coffee is associated with gossiping!

manducation

The act of chewing or eating.

Noah Webster (what a mundane reference today) American Dictionary of the English Language. 1828

Every silver lining has a cloud.
Read all about my travels around the world here.
Read even more of my travel writing and poems on my weblog.

missed yesterday so two words for today.

sibberage
The banns of matrimony. It is often called sibrit which would lead us to suppose thatit is connected with sibrede, relationship, kindred.
This word is peculiar to he Eastern Counties, especially Suffolk...
Major Moore derives it from the beginning of the banns as they used to be published in Latin. si quis sciveret.
Ray's derivation from the Anglo-Saxon [sib] appears to me to be ore probable.

James Halliwell's Dictionary of Archaic and Provincial Words, 1875

This site contains more information on the word, attributing it to Norfolk rather than Suffolk.

Today's word is rather obvious really and certainly still in use.

assishness
Asinine quality; stupidity.

Sir James Murray's New English Dictionary'/i], 1888

A further reference is given in the calendar.

assishness
Blockishnesse.

John Florio's [i]Queen Anne's New World of Words, 1611

I'm getting a bit suspicious of some of these references though. Was the possessive apostrophe in use in 1611. I thought it was a much later development.

Every silver lining has a cloud.
Read all about my travels around the world here.
Read even more of my travel writing and poems on my weblog.

quote:

---

John Florio's Queen Anne's New World of Words, 1611

I'm getting a bit suspicious of some of these references though. Was the possessive apostrophe in use in 1611. I thought it was a much later development.

---

Yes, the apostrophe is in the the original. You can purchase one here (item 616C, about 4/5 of the way down) for a mere $3,800.

It was fun checking.

Two more words today. I know it should be three but one of the pages contains only a piece of not very interesting folklore so I'll skip that one.

roorback
A falsehood; a bogus newspaper article, especially a false allegation issued for political purposes and now a general term for any political fiction or forgery.

Sylvia Clapin's Dictionary of Americanisms, 1902

It's also apparently the name of an album by heavy metal band Sepultura.

parentate

To celebrate one's parents' funerals.

Henry Cockeram's Interpreter of Hard English Words, 1623

I couldn't find ant refernces on Google that had anything that I could see to do with this definition.

Every silver lining has a cloud.
Read all about my travels around the world here.
Read even more of my travel writing and poems on my weblog.

Hmm, I wonder what "meditate" then means in this dictionary!

Sorry that I'm not keeping up with this. Put it down to pressure of work. It should ease a little after next week when our current inspections are over.

Anyway - here's a selection of the ones I've missed (A couple were phrases and not all that obscure.) I'll present them without any additional Google references if that's OK as I don't really have time to go hunting.

bawme
To cherish, to warm; from French embaumer, to embalm. Hence transferred to fomentation, from it's balsalmic influence in restoring the limbs when stiffened with cold or fatigue.

John Jamieson's Etymological Scottish Dictionary, 1808

(Not entirely sure I understood that !)

eargh
Superstitiously afraid. eerie is a later form of this word. The Anglo Saxon form is earh.

Walter Skeat's A Student's Pastime, 1896

orts
Mammocks, or scraps of meat.

John Kersey's New English Dictionary, 1772

(which of course is no help as I have no idea what "mammocks" means !)

upputting
The action of erecting or setting up.

Sir James Murray's New English Dictionary, 1926.

The Folklore section also has a relevent topic on one of the days.

From Churchill's Autobiography My Early Life

quote:

---

My being so long in the lowest form, I gained an immense advantage over the clever boys. They all went on to learn Latin and Greek... but I was taught English... Thus I got into my bones the essential structure of the ordinary British sentence, which is a noble thing... Naturally I am biased in favour of boys learning English. I would make them all learn English and then I would let the cleverer ones learn Latin as an honour, and Greek as atreat.

---

Every silver lining has a cloud.
Read all about my travels around the world here.
Read even more of my travel writing and poems on my weblog.

quote:

---

Originally posted by BobHale:
orts
Mammocks, or scraps of meat.

John Kersey's New English Dictionary, 1772

(which of course is no help as I have no idea what "mammocks" means !)

---

I've never heard mammocks before, but orts is a common crossword puzzle word.

Tinman

[This message was edited by tinman on Sun Jan 25th, 2004 at 22:35.]

It's been ages since I had a chance to do this (pressure of work is keeping me away from the board more than I'd like) so here are a few recent selctions from the Forgotten English Calendar.


The first is an expression which is still more or less current where I live although slightly altered.

wet week
To look or feel like a wet week expresses melancholy.

Edward Gepp's Essex Dialect Dictionary

We say wet weekend but otherwise it's still current.

skriker
the description of this is quite long but comes down to a large shaggy black dog whose appearance supposedly indicates impending death or diaster.

archewife
Wives who aspire to govern their husbands.

Edward Lloyd's Encyclopaedic Dictionary, 1895

hurrocks
A murmuring noise, as the sea on a pebbly shore.

John Mactaggart's Scottis Gallovidian Encyclopedia, 1824

wellquemand
Pleasing;welquemeness, pleasingness.

Herbert Coleridge's Dictionary of the Oldest Words in the English Language, 1863

cumsloosh
A humbug, a flatterer.

Michael Traynor's The English Dialect of Donegal, 1953

unked
solitary, lonely

Edward Phillips's New World of English Words, 1854

bildtraegerins

...women who tie old clotehes or a pillow under the gown in order that people may think they are with child...

The Book of Beggars and Vagabonds, 1509 (trans 1860)

This last one looks German - the literal meaning would be "picture carrier" or "picture wearer".

Every silver lining has a cloud.
Read all about my travels around the world here.
Read even more of my travel writing and poems on my weblog.

I like the word cumsloosh. However, "flatterer" and "humbug" aren't really related. Or are they? "Humbug" can mean "hoax or deception." I had always thought "flatter" means "compliment," but in looking it up, it often means "to compliment excessively or insincerely." I hadn't realized that. People often say, "Oh, I am so flattered that you asked me to do that."

I suppose, then, that "flatter" (insincere compliment) and "humbug" (deception) might be related.

Kalleh,

Yes, "flatter" carries with it the insinuation that the compliments are untrue or overdone. If you say "I am flattered..." to someone, you are acknowledging that you don't really believe the praise.

I suppose an excellent embodiment of a cumsloosh would be Uriah Heep. The character in Charles Dickens's David Copperfield, that is, not the rock band.

quote:

---

If you say "I am flattered..." to someone, you are acknowledging that you don't really believe the praise.

---

Well, if you are right, arnie (and God knows you usually are! )), then I have always used it wrong. I have often said, "I am flattered that you have invited me to this conference." Was I insulting them?