Eight
uncommon words
English
is jam-packed with oddities. Here is a smattering I find entertaining. I hope
you will, too.
Unmarried
couples of Essex in the 1200s who had lived together for a year and a day
without arguing could be awarded a flitch. Flitch showed up in
English a few years beforehand & refers to a side of bacon.
A Dutch
word meaning property made its way
into English in 1833 meaning crowd (because?)
By 1858 it meant counterfeit money (ahem).
That word is boodle, now meaning counterfeit,
a bribe, a crowd, or swag. Though we don’t often hear boodle going solo these
days, it plays a role in the term kit & caboodle.
A cantle
is a part or portion cut from something
else. It came to English in the early 1300s through Old French from a Latin
word meaning corner.
The
word quincunx
has been around since the 1640s. Quincunx translates in Latin to five twelfths & initially referred
to planet alignment. Later, it picked up a monetary meaning (5/12 of the Roman unit of currency). In
time, it was applied to the arrangement
of five spades, diamonds, clubs or hearts on a playing card (which would
make more sense to me if someone years ago had killed the kings, leaving queens
as the highest – or twelfth – card).
In the
1700s the word chrestomathy was born. It referred to a collection of literary passages. It came through French &
Latin from a Greek word meaning useful learning.
And
don’t we all stay up at night wondering what to call the assemblage of pews in a church? A pewage, of course. Pewage
can also be used to refer to the amount of money it takes to purchase the pews.
Though pew came to English in the 1300s through Old French from Latin,
no one is certain when pewage was born.
In 1819
the word tabagie was born through French & Spanish from tobacco,
a Carribean (most likely Taino) word. A tabagie is a group of
people who gather to smoke. One must wonder if a tabagie were to assemble
in a pewage
whether non-smokers might refer to the whole enchilada as a spewage.
And
we’ll finish up thinking of those who choose to shave their chins & wear
long sideburns. Such folks are sporting dundrearies. The term appeared in
1867 & comes from Lord Dundreary, the “witless, indolent”
protagonist from Tom Taylor’s play, Our
American Cousin.
Please
click on comments below & let me know how many of these eight words
were new to you.
Big thanks
to friend Aaron Keating, for suggesting this week’s topic, & thanks to this
week’s sources: Wordnik,
Merriam-Webster,
Etymonline,
& Collins
Dictionary.
You have indeed enlightened me today, Mr. Monger! I had heard of caboodles, of the sort that combine with kits, and, because I come from a family of clergypersons, I had heard of a "pewage" but only in jest. Quincunx I know because I spent some time studying astrology, but I didn't know it referred to playing cards. The rest are new to me. I'm especially pleased to hear about dundrearies. What a great word!
ReplyDeleteWow. You must be some kind of writer or something. Thanks for coming by again.
DeleteWow...now that was entertaining! I would love to use chrestomathy in a casual sentence someday. "I just read the most beautiful chrestomathy. I found it hidden amongst the pewage." Wouldn't that be impressive?
ReplyDeleteThere very well may be a plethora of chrestomathies lurking amid the pewage!
Delete