Mondays word - Peristorenic

So what have Autumn Pumpkins got to do with pigeons or writing?  Well, nothing actually.  I just thought that since it's October and everyone seems to be thinking of Halloween, perhaps I ought to have some Halloween type pictures on my blog, and I rather like the Autumn leaves and butterflies.  As for the pigeon, well this came up at Michael Quinion's* site this week and I thought it was rather an interesting word.  He says:


"Pigeon-fancying was especially strong in England in the nineteenth century, with great skill expended in breeding new varieties forshow. Charles Darwin became a fancier in 1855 to study variation within species as part of his research which became On the Origin of Species.

Like other bodies of the period, pigeon-fanciers' societies looked to the classical languages for suitably distinguished titles. At the time Darwin became involved, a London one was grandly calledthe Philoperisteron Society. "Philo-" means a lover of something,from Greek "philos", loving; "peristeron" was invented by a learnedfounder, which he took from Greek "peristera" for a wild pigeon ordove. The organisation changed its name in 1867 to the National Peristeronic Society (which still exists), in which "peristeronic"was another invented word, an adjective with the sense "relating to or concerned with pigeons". The change of name should not be taken as meaning that the members of the society had ceased loving their pigeons."

So now when you work a pigeon fancier into your romance novel, you know the correct term to use!

*World Wide Words is copyright (c) Michael Quinion 2010. All rights reserved. The Words Web site is at http://www.worldwidewds.
Reproduced with permission

Mondays Word - Guddling

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Monday's Word is Guddling.   A Fishing term.  Now it has to be said, the idea of catching a fish by fooling it with a few feathers and then piercing its mouth with a nasty, sharp hook, holds no appeal to me, mainly because I can't help sympathising with the poor creature.  However, 'tickling' a fish, especially if its for food, doesn't seem quite so cruel. This is what Michael Quinion* has to say about the practice.

"Guddlers live in difficult times, since the activity that goes by the name of guddling is illegal in many places, including the UKand most US states.


It's a method of fishing that requires only the bare hands, hencerather too convenient for poachers who find rods and tackle bothcumbersome and revealing. It's also called tickling and is linked in particular with fishing for trout. In parts of North America itspractitioners call it noodling, though they usually reserve it for hunting catfish, a beast so well equipped to fight back that to do so is to engage in an extreme sport.

'Trout guddling requires patience and skill: There had been a swift and noiseless rush underneath the stone; a few grains of sand rose up where the white under part of the trout had touched it as it glided beneath. Slowly and imperceptibly Winsome's hand worked its way beneath the stone. With the fingers of one hand she made that slight swirl of the water which is supposed by expert "guddlers" to fascinate the trout, and to render them incapable of resisting the beckoning fingers.

[The Lilac Sunbonnet, by S R Crockett, 1894.]'

The verb "guddle" has been most associated with Scotland, and maybe derived from Gaelic, though its antecedents are obscure."

I've always known the term as 'tickling'  so 'guddle' was a new word for my personal dicitionary!

*World Wide Words is copyright (c) Michael Quinion 2010. All rights reserved. The Words Web site is at http://www.worldwidewords.org/