Recently I was looking up 'tralaticious' in the Oxford English Dictionary Online, and found myself looking up 'dickey pot'. (Well, you know how it is, as you get older?) There was no entry for 'dickey pot', but there was a collection of quotations explaining how one meaning of dickey, (or dicky), was a petticoat - that is, a woman's underskirt.
_â 4. An under petticoat. /Obs./_ 1753 /Songs Costume/ (Percy Soc.) 231 "With fringes of knotting your Dickey cabod [? cabob], On slippers of velvet, set gold a-la-daube." 1787 /Minor/ I. 99 "Of all her splendid apparel not a wreck remained..save her flannel dicky." 1800 J. Wolcot /Ld. Auckland's Triumph/ in/Wks./ (1812) IV. 311 "The hips ashamed forsooth to wear a dicky." 1847â78 J. O. Halliwell /Dict. Archaic & Provinc. Words/ /Dicky/, "a woman's under-petticoat." I would like to write to them about the lack of "dickey pot", but they will only accept additions to the dictionary if accompanied by examples of written use of the word from dated sources, (as above). So can anyone contribute any evidence that I can use in a submission? Indeed, are there other words from the history of lace making which ought to be recorded formally? Linda Walton, in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, U.K., where the sun has come up on my cherry trees, which are in perfect full bloom just now. The area where I live once had many cherry orchards, supplying the London market, and I planted my trees in honour of this. I was a little nervous because the old cherry orchards were wiped out by some disease, but my trees are only troubled by the birds stealing the fruit. Although I rarely enjoy any cherries, the blossom is wonderful, and reminds me of the many local lace makers of this area, (as well as the straw plaiters), who would once have looked out at delicate blossoms and drifts of floating petals. Were there any lace patterns using these flowers, I wonder? Does anyone know? - To unsubscribe send email to [email protected] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [email protected]. For help, write to [email protected]. Photo site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lacemaker/sets/
