DIALECT AND WORD MEANINGS

[Stanley]

Could be more like optical illusions in that example.....

[Tizer]

I hurt my back yesterday by bending to use shears to cut plants growing along the bottom of the house wall. This morning, while taking longer than usual to get dressed and hobbling about, I thought `I must look like a cripple'. Now there's a word that you don't often hear now, except when newspapers like to use it as in `a crippling new tax'. But we no longer use the word to describe a disabled person.

[Tripps]

I think that's probably a good thing.

I have a book inherited from My late mother in law, called Cripple George Subtitle 'God has a plan for every man'.

It was a prize from the Banbridge Road, Sabbath School, N. Ireland, in 1925. An occasional glance is a good antidote for those occasions when people speak of 'political correctness gone mad'

[Tizer]

I agree that it's a good thing we no longer use the word as a noun to relegate people to a category as if they are lesser members of society. But I'm sure it will have a long life in the news media to describe all the crippling burdens that the journalists like to warn us about!

[Stanley]

'Cripple' was in common usage when I was a lad to describe someone who was hampered by disability and I think we still use it in phrases like 'he was crippled by arthritis'. As for the etymology of the word I found this: "Old English: from two words, crypel and crēopel, both of Germanic origin and related to creep."

[Stanley]

I noted yesterday when talking about field systems that 'dole' was used to describe a piece of land, the income from which was dedicated to a charity. That's the same origin of dole as a description of unemployed benefit, something that is 'doled out', handed out for free.. "Old English dāl ‘division, portion, or share’, of Germanic origin; related to deal. The sense ‘distribution of charitable gifts’ dates from Middle English; the sense ‘unemployment benefit’ dates from the early 20th century.".

[Tizer]

I've come across a word that's new to me but it describes what many of us engage in on OGFB: persiflage. It means gentle teasing or banter and comes from the French word persifler meaning to tease.

[Tripps]

Great word. Makes me think immediately of Boris Johnson or Mr Rees Mogg.

[Stanley]

My problem with persiflage or banter comes when it spills over into bullying. I was on the receiving end of that at one point at school at a very vulnerable time and I have never forgotten it.

[Tripps]

I really like this word persiflage - but feel the need for an adjective and adverb form. Can't find any so I'm trying persiflageous (adj) or persiflagilistically (adv).

It's up there with tergiversate, but it's not my all time favourite which is Gallithumpian.

[Stanley]

My favourite word is 'lurking'. God alone knows why and she isn't telling......

[plaques]

Gallithumpian

.Mom and dad used Gallithump quite a lot. "I don't care a gallithump," never really knew what it meant. Dad was very political in his outlook.

[Tripps]

I think I may have posted this before, but a repeat will do no harm. It is quite 'political'.

From The Marlocks of Merriton
by Ben Brierley (1825 - 1896)

Somewhere about the time when the first Bonaparte was engaged in his praiseworthy endeavours to depopulate Europe, there existed in Merriton a society of social reformers calling themselves "Gallithumpians." The qualifications for membership were exceedingly simple. If the candidate had returned a favourable answer to the question, "Dost' want to see th' wo'ld a bit betther than it is?" he had subscribed to the fundamental principle of the Gallithumpian creed. If he had said "Ay" to the further question, "Dost' believe ut fun's better nor physic; an' ut long faces are an abomination?" he was deemed eligible to be made acquainted with the initiatory tenets of the society. If he pledged himself never to lose sight of the public good for private gain, he was invested with a ragged coat—the Gallithumpian badge—and further inducted into the great mysteries of living cheaply, dealing fairly, and using the world as if he wished it to last beyond his own time.

The Gallithumpians had a motto, which embodied in its injunctions the objects it was desirable should be carried out, "Never rob anybody of a day's wark;" a principle which found great favour among most aspirants to the investiture of the ragged garment. It was contended by eminent Gallithumpians that, if the Creator had intended man should work after sunset, He would have given him a pair of cat's eyes, or otherwise endowed him with the faculty of groping his way through the most profound darkness. Fire and water were sent for cooking purposes, and not for driving engines; for of what use was it employing steam power, when hands were idle that could do the work; unless there was a communion of property, and each member went on the idle list in his turn? Nothing could prove of lasting benefit that involved waste of material. Wind and water power might, in some degree, be allowed to supersede manual labour, because their sources were inexhaustible; but steam could not be produced without wasting coal; therefore, what was gained at one point would be lost at another. Had Gallithumpians ever dreamt of the coming of a time when rivers would be polluted with substances that were required by the land, and that corporations would quarrel about which town should be made the cesspool of the other, they would have calculated that, in a few generations hence, the whole human race would have degenerated into a breed of maggots, thriving only on corruption—moral as well as physical.

[Tizer]

I enjoyed that, Tripps, thanks!

[Stanley]

Lovely! Thanks for that David.....

[Stanley]

I discovered a new word yesterday, 'Tredegarisation'. I had an idea what it meant but found THIS on the web. Well worth reading to remind ourselves of what the process was that led to the inception of the NHS.

[Tizer]

It's good it was named after Tredegar and not after that Welsh place with the very long name.

[Stanley]

Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogochisation.

[Tizer]

Thank you!

[Tripps]

Honking - in the context of cycling. . .

(.Thanks for reminding me Plaques see medical thread.)

Standing up on the pedals in a low gear working hard to climb a hill.

See also 'twiddling' - riding in too low a gear with the legs going excessively quickly.

That's how I remember it anyway . . .

[Stanley]

You remember right David. 'Bonk' as well, the sudden drop in blood sugar that made everything an immense effort. We had French 'musettes' and called them bonk bags..... Emergency sugary food!
Steeplejacks call scaffold erectors 'twirlers'.

[Tizer]

I've been reading more about the old peat workings near Glastonbury and it's replete with wonderful jargon terms. I'll try to remember to put some on here.

A bit off topic but that book had a great story from one of the peat workers from early in the last century. He said that sometimes they had problems due to water or methane causing `lifts'. He could be 10 foot down a hole (they dug out a 10x10 foot square) and getting close to the underlying clay when the floor would begin to rise and lift him up until he was level with the ground and could step off. Then he'd jab the floor with his pick, the gas would be released and the floor would subside and he could get back to work. He said that water was more dangerous. That would lift you very fast with a rocking motion and the pit became useless. They called these events `wind and water rides' and said that when the methane escaped it droned like the sound bagpipes.

Later...I've got the book now - `Avalon Marshes Archaeology' by Richard Brunning (75 pages, £5). The delver starts his pit by using his turf scythe to remove the top spine. He then cuts his brocks which the bearer lifts into a barrow using his turf fork, takes them to a dry spot and cuts them each into three. After water has drained from them they are built into small heaps called ruckles and after a time are rebuilt into open structures known as tunegars. eventually these are ricked ready for carting to the market. Later, when larger pits were dug, the unriddings (top soil) was removed, mumps were cut out and split into 3 or 4 turves. These were winrowed, put into small stacks called hyles and later into ruckles of about 1000.

[Stanley]

Lovely, a different language!

[Tripps]

I mentioned my invented adverb 'persiflagilistically' a while ago. I've now discovered that it has been picked up by Google and a search leads back to the reference on this site.

It is a unique reference, with only one google search result. As such it qualifies as a 'google whack'. Quite rare.

Can I now claim title to the word, and charge a fee for its use? In fairness, I think I should go halves with Tizer though, for introducing persiflage. Aren't words fun?

[Tizer]

Congratulations Tripps!