I have always loved Samuel Johnson's Dictionary, and tonight I found a great book, "Samuel Johnson's Insults" edited by Jack Lynch (2004). It is so fun! Here is an example:

Dandiprat - means a little fellow. Have you heard it? If so, have you heard it used in a positive or negative way? What intrigued me was that it can be used to indicate fondness, or it can be used with contempt. Isn't there a term for a word that has opposite meanings? What is it again?

I have never heard this word! Sounds like it would imply a gay man . . . the dandi thing.

Gay as in cheerful, or swashbuckling, or...? Not that many years ago there was a men's clothing store in these parts called "The Gay Blade." As times changed, they were forced to change their name. Pity, that. And "dandy" did not, in times past, imply sexual orientation.

I think I'll form a committee (maybe with the help of those French folks at the society to rid French of Franglais) to rehabilitate "gay!"

quote:

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Originally posted by Asa Lovejoy: "The Gay Blade."

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Where did that phrase come from? I tried a google search, but the results are punning on that phrase, using 'gay' in the sense of 'homosexual'.

Among the definition of 'blade' is "[informal, dated] a dashing young man" (Comp.OED). Has anyone ever heard or seen it used in this sense except in the phrase "a gay blade"? I certainly haven't.

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Has anyone ever heard or seen it used in this sense except in the phrase "a gay blade"?

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I have, certainly, but not in contemporary writing; I can't think of a cite at the moment. It was used in the 18th and early 19th centuries to describe the sort of foppish, dandyish young men of "Society" who were keen on duelling, horseracing and wenching.

From our faithful OED:

III. Applied to a man. [Prob. connected with senses 6, 7, though whether as a fig. use of these, or as a wielder of a blade, does not appear from the 83 earliest quotations examined.]

11. a. A gallant, a free-and-easy fellow, a good fellow; ‘fellow’, generally familiarly laudatory, sometimes good-naturedly contemptuous. (The original sense is difficult to seize: Bailey 1730 says, ‘a bravo, an Hector; also a spruce fellow, a beau’; Johnson ‘a brisk man, either fierce or gay, called so in contempt.’) (Now colloquial or slangy: in literature, chiefly a reminiscence of the eighteenth century.)

1592 SHAKES. Rom. & Jul. II. iv. 31 By Iesu a very good blade, a very tall man. 1640 NABBES Bride II. i, Go carry the blades in the Lion a pottle of Sack from me. 1658 USSHER Ann. 159 Sending for such..as he knew to be blades, and had good hearts and head-peeces of their owne. 1667 PEPYS Diary (1879) IV. 354 As the present fashion among the blades is. 1705 HICKERINGILL Priest-Cr. II. v. 57 These are the Blades must do all, though they do all ill. 1760 Lond. Mag. XXIX. 224 Gentlemen of the town, as a sort of Blades may be well y'clep'd. 1818 COBBETT Resid. U.S. (1822) 354 A blade whom I took for a decent tailor.



b. usually taking force and colour from an attribute: e.g. brave, stout, gallant, fighting, swaggering, swashing, bullying, blustering, dashing, rattling, roaring, roistering, jolly, lively, wild, comical, fantastical, cynical, crafty, knowing, saucy, worthy, old, young, etc.

c1600 Rob. Hood (Ritson) II. vi. 73 This is a mad blade, the butchers then said. 1629 FORD Lover's Melanch. I. ii. (1839) 4 He's an honest blade, though he be blunt. 1646 EVELYN Mem. (1857) I. 243 A true old blade, and had been a very curious virtuoso, etc. 1649 C. WALKER Hist. Indep. II. 184 Those free spirited Blades whom Oliver raised into a Mutiny. 1682 N. O. tr. Boileau's Lutrin I. Argt. 2 Three swashing Blades. 1714 T. ELLWOOD Autobiog. (1765) 143 These two Baptists were topping Blades. 1726 AMHERST Terræ Fil. 185 [In] All-Souls college one afternoon, several jovial blades..were sitting there over a pipe and a bottle. 1779 JOHNSON Lett. II. ccxviii. 75 When we meet we will be jolly blades. 1818 SCOTT Hrt. Midl. i, Two dashing young blades. 1822 W. IRVING Braceb. Hall ix. 75 He was one of the most roaring blades of the neighbourhood. 1840 DICKENS Barn. Rudge v, He's a knowing blade. 1857 SIR F. PALGRAVE Norm. & Eng. II. 443 The clever old crafty blade spoke out with..a thorough knowledge.

c. sometimes with local or official attribute.

c1626 Dick of Devon II. i. in Bullen O. Pl. II. 26 My Devonshire blade, honest Dick Pike. 1638 SUCKLING Goblins in Fragm. Aur. (1646) 35 [He] askes much after certaine Brittish blades, One Shakespeare and Fletcher. 1663 Hist. Cromwell in Select. Harl. Misc. (1793) 367 [Cromwell] packs up a juncto of army blades..who constitute a high court of justice. 1755 CARTE Hist. Eng. IV. 406 Exposed to any sudden attempt from..the Buckinghamshire blades. 1882 J. GREENWOOD Tag, Rag & Co. xiii. 106 Adventures of a keen Yorkshire blade.

Oh, thanks, CW. You're so lucky! You practically live with the OED!

I will never forget when I first took this job 2 years ago, our very sweet receptionist was taking an English class. She was all upset because her professor had told her she had to compare definitions of words in the regular dictionary and then the OED (you can imagine my interest!). She had no idea what he had meant by an OED. I have to admit that I was shocked.

I explained what it is and gave her directions to the nearest one; we have been great buddies ever since.

So it appears from the OED entry that none of the cites, for this usage, are at all contemporary. The last of them is in 1882.

The last of them is in 1882.

It might be a first edition OED, mightn't it?

QUOTE: 1882: It might be a first edition OED, mightn't it?

Only if CW typed it in from scratch. I'm betting she used the on-line edition.

Only if CW typed it in from scratch.

Typing builds character ... or type ...

Although I could have typed it out, I actually just cut and pasted from the OED online. My library has a subscription. Thanks to you all, I'm an habitual user now.

I'm not entirely certain (jheem, you can form your own opinion) but I believe I already have plenty of character.

Spinning off of "dandiprat".

1898 was the first time the word limerick appeared in print referring to the 5-line verse form. (The word had been so used in private correspondence at least two years earlier.) The Cantab (the Cambridge student magazine) of 6 October 1898 included a feature called "Illustrated Limericks," the very first of which was this:

There once was a dandified swell
Who tumbled down into a well.
But a man heard him shout,
And at once pulled him out,
For his sentences savoured of -- Billingsgate.

Am I missing something? Billingsgate?

Billingsgate was a fishmarket in London, and the people who worked there were famous for their abusive language. I think it's one of those lines, where the readers is supposed to think that Hell is the final word (like the song about shaving cream), but have supplied another which at the end of the 19th century would be more decorous than the word anticpated. It's a fun poetic device, but I cannot remember what it's called.

Oh, and CW, saying that typing improved character does in no way imply that you are in need of character-building. Sorry if that's what you inferred.

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Originally posted by jheem:
It's a fun poetic device, but I cannot remember what it's called.

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Think we could come up with examples, jheem?

Think we could come up with examples?

Well, the limerick you qutoed above is one. The shaving cream song: let's see ... Lyrics and chords are here..

This song uses a similar but different gimmick.

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Originally posted by jheem:
Oh, and CW, saying that typing improved character does in no way imply that you are in need of character-building. Sorry if that's what you inferred.

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I took it for exaclty what I believed it to be - a joke . . . well, not quite a joke . . . more of a humorous phrase meant to spark a smile. I smiled, and I responded with my tongue firmly (but temporarily) planted in my cheek. My right cheek. The one on my face (this comment of clarification is for Asa, who would otherwise make a comment about my flexible body or something).

It's a fun poetic device, but I cannot remember what it's called.

Now I want to know what it is called!

Of course, that's what Billingsgate means! Wasn't it a word of the day or something? I know we have discussed it here before. I like that poetic device. How fun!

Song we used to sing in Girl Scouts:

She went wading in the water and she got her feet all wet
She went wading in the water and she got her feet all wet
She went wading in the water and she got her feet all wet
but she didn't get her (clap clap) wet . . . yet.


. . . then she gets her knees wet
. . . . then her thighs

then you fill in the claps . . . with bathing suit