AWADmail Issue 244
January 14, 2007
A Compendium of Feedback on the Words in A.Word.A.Day
and Other Interesting Tidbits about Words and Languages
----------------------------
From: Maurice Russell (maurice.russell which.net)
Subject: RE: A.Word.A.Day--malkin, and paying extra
Refer: http://wordsmith.org/words/malkin.html
I used to work with a guy who had a thing about long or unusual words.
Whenever I used one he'd look at me and say "That's a very expensive word,
what does it mean?"
----------------------------
From: Linda Sanders (actressteacher msn.com)
Subject: A.Word.A.Day--os
Refer: http://wordsmith.org/words/os.html
Here is another abbreviation for O.S. - "Old Style"
This is what was carved on Thomas Jefferson's tombstone for his date of birth:
HERE WAS BURIED
THOMAS JEFFERSON
AUTHOR OF THE
DECLARATION
OF AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE
OF THE
STATUTE OF VIRGINIA
FOR
RELIGIOUS FREEDOM
AND FATHER OF THE
UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
BORN APRIL 2, 1743 O.S.
DIED JULY 4. 1826
You see, the Julian calendar was in effect in England and the colonies until
1752. The newly adopted Gregorian calendar, or "New Style", added 11 days
to the Julian calendar to bring it into line with the astronomical year.
Jefferson, apparently wanted posterity to know his actual birth date
according to the calendar under which he was born, which was the "Old Style"
or Julian calendar.
http://www.monticello.org/reports/life/old_style.html
----------------------------
From: Michael Sivertz (sivertz bnl.gov)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--os
The theme for this week's words (words that have many unrelated meanings)
reminds me of an annoying physics teacher who enjoyed concocting equations
that contained the same character to represent many different quantities,
just to maximize our confusion i.e. using the letter "e" to stand for
"energy", "the electric charge on the electron", "the base for natural
logarithms", and as a subscript for enumeration. It worked marvelously well.
----------------------------
From: Lydia Rivlin (l.rivlin btinternet.com)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--gammon
Refer: http://wordsmith.org/words/gammon.html
"Gammon and spinach" is an expression meaning "nonsense". It is not
much used nowadays but I think it must have been quite popular in the
18th and early 19th century. It survives today in a children's nursery
rhyme "The Frog he would a-courting go" in which the expression
features as part of the chorus. It must always be remembered that many
songs we considered amusements for children nowadays started out as
amusements for adults and used current adult expressions of their time.
It is possible that the word "gammon" as a verb meaning "to deceive"
came from the concept of confusing someone with nonsense.
The frog he would a-courting go,
Hey-ho said Rolley.
The frog he would a-courting go,
Whether his mother would let him or no
With a roly poly, gammon and spinach
Hey-ho says Anthony Rolley.
[there are several more verses to this!]
----------------------------
From: David H Mackenzie (davidmackenzie grapevine.net.au)
Subject: RE: A.Word.A.Day--gammon
G'day from Down Under.
My father used the term 'gammon' to mean make believe or 'just kidding' as
in 'He's just talking gammon' or 'It's only gammon'. This use fits in with
its being used as a verb to deceive or fool. He told me that Australian
aborigines he'd worked with in outback stock camps in the 1920s used the
word to convey these meanings. I never queried the origin but the many and
varied forms of pidgin English aborigines used took words from many
languages, so it's not surprising, even if we aren't sure of the actual
origin. I haven't heard it much in Australia since my Dad died. The "Oxford
Dictionary of slang" (1992), which is not restricted to Australian slang
alone, suggests British origins, insincere or nonsensical talk intended to
deceive or flatter; humbug, rubbish. As a verb, it might have been derived
from the 18th and 19th century thieves' slang 'to give gammon' or 'keep
someone in gammon' as a distraction while an accomplice robs him. Oxford
suggests this usage links back to backgammon.
----------------------------
From: Nan Koenig (skoenig midsouth.rr.com)
Subject: Gammon
Gammon is commonly used in Scots to describe all ham. There are little
pockets of Scots in Southwest and Southeast Scotland. South of Glasgow, for
instance, you'll get asked if you'd like a fry-up for breakfast with gammon
and black pudding (just don't ask what black pudding is). Personally, I
like it, but I had to ask.
----------------------------
From: Christine Thresh (christine winnowing.com)
Subject: Re: gammon
Gammon, in the sense of "to deceive or to fool", was the clue that solved
a mystery in an Agatha Christie Miss Marple short story.
----------------------------
From: Charles Hruska (chruska earthlink.net)
Subject: Gammon
Here is another possible meaning for "Gammon". I suppose that, as a verb,
[to gammon the bowsprit] it could be one way to describe the application of
"gammoning".
William Falconer's Dictionary of the Marine, G, page 606
Gammoning, (lieure, Fr.) a rope used to bind the inner quarter of the
bowsprit close down to the ship's stem, in order to enable it the better
to support the stays of the foremast.
http://southseas.nla.gov.au/refs/falc/0606.html
----------------------------
From: Susan Walker (violetwind earthlink.net)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--fizgig
Refer: http://wordsmith.org/words/fizgig.html
"Fizzgig" is the name of a small creature in "The Dark Crystal" (Henson &
Oz). Since designed along the lines of a small, fuzzy, yappy dog, one could
say that Fizzgig's energy does indeed evoke a spinning top.
----------------------------
From: Ross Miller (boatmiller snet.net)
Subject: Homonyms, etc.
This week's words are homonyms, and possibly homographs if not homophones,
too.
Last year, when the United States Congress was busy with such important
matters as trying to amend the Constitution to ban gay marriage, I concocted
a bumper sticker that read "God Hates Homophones." The first to ask me
about it was a woman in a car with another woman, for what that's worth.
She asked what a homophone was, and I explained, using "see" and "sea" as
examples. "OK" she said, still thoughtful. Then she asked why God hated
them, and I said that it was because God was a poor speller and She found
them frustrating. At that point her concern seemed alleviated, if her
smile was any indication.
After a few weeks, though, I removed it because many people seemed to be
jumping to conclusions from the first four letters of the third word and
mistaking me for a bigot. It was refreshing to find that their hearts were
in the right place, even if they were careless readers.
............................................................................
Words, like Nature, half reveal and half conceal the Soul within. -Alfred,
Lord Tennyson, poet (1809-1892)
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