Monday's Words - 'Upper Crust'

"Historical writers sometimes refer to the upper classes as 'the upper crust', but have you ever wondered where the term came from?  According to *Michael Quinion, in his 'World Wide Words' site, one suggestion is:

"......the old method of baking bread in an oven. This was heated by burning dry twigs in it and after raking out the ashes, the bread dough was put in to bake. The bottom of the resulting loaf was over-baked because it was sitting on the hot oven floor; ashes also stuck to it. The upper crust was properly baked, however, and was obviously more desirable......

......Tourist guides will explain that the upper crust was reserved for the master and mistress of the household and that the term "upper crust" was transferred to its consumers. The first part is probably true but the second isn't. There's no evidence for the term having evolved as a reference to the better bits of bread being reserved
for the highest-ranking members of a household, apart from a much-quoted oblique reference in John Russell's Book of Nurture of 1460, which reads, in modern English: "Cut the upper crust [of the loaf]
for your sovereign".

There have been other senses of "upper crust". The most common in the eighteenth century was of the upper surface of the earth and by analogy the crust that forms on the surface of partially melted and refrozen snow or on the mud of a partially dried-out pond. In the early nineteenth century, it became slang for a hat or the head......

...... "upper crust" was initially low slang, an insulting reference to people who considered themselves a cut above the rest. By this time, "upper crust" was so fixed a phrase in various senses that it's doubtful whether a direct mental link with bread was in its coiners' minds. The stress here was on "upper", as a symbol of
supposed superiority.

Even though it was originally British, it rapidly spread to North America and later to the rest of the English-speaking world; in the process it shifted sense to refer to those who were actually at the top of the social pyramid, the "quality", though never quite losing its derogatory implications."

Have you ever used the phrase 'upper crust' yourself? And if so do you have any other ideas as to its possible origins?

'STARQUEST'    'CHILDREN OF THE MIST'  (The sequel to Starquest)  Dancing With Fate      'Freeread':'A BARGAIN WITH DEATH 'STARQUEST'    'CHILDREN OF THE MIST'  (The sequel to Starquest)  Dancing With Fate      'Freeread':'A BARGAIN WITH DEATH'
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*World Wide Words is copyright (c) Michael Quinion 2011. All rights reserved. The Words website is at http://www.worldwidewords.org .

Monday's Words Sphexish

Well it's June already, and although it's not as hot as it has been, as soon as we get a spell of warm dry weather, no doubt the garden will be invaded by wasps, which brings me to today's word, courtesy of Michael Quinion.

"Scholars of ancient languages will immediately spot that this word has something to do with a wasp, since "sphex" is the name of that 

insect in classical Greek. In more modern times, it has been given 

to a genus of solitary digger wasps. Therein lies a tale.

When such a wasp returns to its burrow with a paralysed cricket to 

feed its grubs, it will leave it at the entrance while it checks 

inside that all is well. It then comes out again and drags its prey 

inside. This gave a naturalist with a cruel streak an idea for a 

bit of behavioural research. He moved the cricket a little way away 

while the wasp was in its burrow. When the it surfaced and found 

its cricket was missing, it searched for it and returned it to the 

entrance to its burrow. It then repeated its search of the inside. 

No matter how many times the cricket was moved, the wasp repeated 

the same steps robotically without working out what was going on.

Douglas Hofstadter recounted the story in one of his Metamagical 

Themas columns in Scientific American in 1982 and coined "sphexish" 

for this unthinking deterministic or pre-programmed behaviour, in 

which the wasp was at the mercy of its instincts and environment. 

In a book derived from his columns, Hofstadter later suggested that 

humans might likewise exhibit such robotic behaviour: "

(I feel sorry for the cricket).


Now there's an idea for a Science Fiction story.  Hang on though. Most days I get up and before I even have my breakfast, immediately switch on my computer and check my emails. Even though I've made a resolution to write for two hours before looking at my emails, I still do it - I just can't bear the thought I might miss something important!  Oh dear that sounds ditsinctly sphexish, doesn't it!

*World Wide Words is copyright © Michael Quinion 2011. All rights reserved The  original post can be found at:  http://www.worldwidewords.org

Monday's Word - SIDEKICK

 As writers, we often introduce a 'sidekick' into our stories.  Even if we're writing romance, the sub genres, mystery, suspense, and especially fantasy or Science Fiction, Western Historicas, often need someone at the hero or heroine's side, to assist them on their quest, and sometimes to provide a little comic relief.  But do you know where the term 'Sidekick' orginated from?  Well, according to Michael Quinion in his 'World Wide Words'
 
"Scott W Langill recalled a book of the 1930s by a
pickpocket that mentioned this and noted that the side pocket - the side kick - was the hardest pocket to pick and that the slang term for a buddy and its connotation of trustworthiness both came from it. You may judge the etymological insight of the writer from his view that the rear trouser pocket, in pickpockets' slang called the "prat", was the origin of "prat fall".

It's the other way around -"prat", as a slang term for a buttock, dates from about 1560 and the hip-pocket sense is twentieth century. Unfortunately for the tellers of trouser pocket tales, "kick" for a pocket was British slang, not American, whereas the buddy meaning of "sidekick" is definitely from the US.

Others mentioned several specialist uses of "kicker" that might have contributed to its meaning. One is the poker sense of a side card that breaks a tie. Another is the printer's sense of a device that after a set count of pages pushes one slightly to the side so pages can be easily counted or separated into sets.

A third is that the original sidekicks would have ridden horses, encouraged by kicks to their sides, so a sidekick was one who rode alongside you. "

So what do you think, which of the theories would you subscribe to? 

Myself, I think all three have something going for them - although as a 'horseperson' I'm not too keen about people 'kicking' their horses sides - a gentle nudge with the heel is all that should be necessary, but that's another topic altogether!


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

Tolfaedic

 Welcome to Monday morning at my blog.  Sit down and help yourself to cakes.  You notice there are thirteen, just to make sure, in case anyone feels short changed.  Which leads me nicely into today's word courtesy of Michael Quinion*

"In centuries past, merchants selling goods by number often supplied
a larger quantity than the nominal total. The baker's dozen of 13
is well known. Less so is the measure of 120, which was once known
variously as the great hundred, long hundred or small gross.

The number 120 is the result of measuring items by twelves rather than by tens, a survival of the duodecimal system used by many civilisations in antiquity and of which relics like the dozen and the gross still survive. It's known, though very rarely, as the"tolfraedic" system. In origin the word is Icelandic, from "tólf",twelve, plus "ráða", to speak. Relatives of the term were used in Iceland and throughout Scandinavia to distinguish between hundredsthat were ten tens and hundreds that were ten twelves (in Icelandic called "tolfrátt hundrað").

The long hundred was so widely used at one time in England that aproverb was created to remind people that:

Five score's a hundred of men, money and pins; sixscore's a hundred of all other things.
[Quoted in Curiosities in Proverbs, by Dwight Edwards
Marvin, 1916.]

It was common, as just one example out of many, to sell nails bythis measure (though why pins weren't is a curiosity now lost inhistory). The medieval Anglo-Saxon Chronicle even stated that theyear is 305 days long. This wasn't an astronomical error, but thetolfraedic system in action. Three long hundreds is 360; add in the
extra five and you have the usual year length."

So now, if anyone asks you how many days are in a year, you can say 305, and explain you're counting in 'Long Hundreds'!

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

Monday's Word: Aposematic

 This cute little creature is the subject of Michael Quinion's ' 'Weird Words' this week. Sadly this gorgeously colored little frog is now quite rare, having been another victim of the 'pet trade'. Michael says:

"I came across the word in an article about Bristol Zoo, which has
set up an amphibian sanctuary to breed two endangered species. One
of them is the golden mantella frog native to Madagascar, which is
a brilliant golden-orange. The colours are aposematic, referring to
the bright markings or hues exhibited by some living creatures to
warn predators that they are poisonous. (The frog cheats: it isn't toxic but the colours fool its enemies into thinking it is. Some writers restrict "aposematic" to such false warnings.)

Though this is common enough in the biological sciences, it's notoften encountered elsewhere..."

Well, this is the opposite to the 'wolf in sheep's clothing' which is fairly common in literature.  As most of you know, I write futuristic and fantasy romance, and in my first book 'Starquest' I had a  race of  huge sea creatures known as the 'Gru' which although ferocious to look at, were actually very peaceful and gentle - I didn't realise at the time that I was writing about something that was 'aposematic'.  Another word to add to my writer's dictionary!

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

Monday's Word - Bedizened

I've delved into Michael Quinion's 'World Wide Words'*  site again this week.
I don't suppose your romantic heroine will 'bedizen'! (I hope not, anyway:) )

'To bedizen is to dress up in a gaudy way...

...if we were true to the history of European
culture, we might argue that it is only women who can be bedizened.
It would be fruitless to do so, of course, because its users apply
the word as often to men as to women, as well as to houses, cars,
Christmas trees, theatrical sets and anything else that can be accused of being decked out with finery to vulgar excess.

The female connections exist because the word is closely linked to"distaff", which people now use most often for matters relating tofemales. That's because spinning thread with the yard-long woodenrod called a distaff was traditionally women's work. The "staff"part of the word presents no difficulties, but few of us now know
that the "dis" beginning derives from an ancient Low German sourcethat meant a bunch of flax. (The implication that the distaff wasfirst used for spinning linen thread, not wool, is confirmed by the
archaeological evidence.)

Nearly 500 years ago, the verb "dizen" appeared, presumably from the same source as "dis" (though nobody knows how), which meant todress a distaff for spinning. A century or so later it started torefer to decking a person or a thing with finery. Within decades,"be-" had been added to it to make the verb stronger. Ever since,"bedizened" has implied that the bedecking has gone to excess.'

I have to admit I would never  have thought that a word used to describe an overdressed person was derived from such an ancient skill as spinning. Isn't the English language wonderful!

Thanks to Michael Quinion -

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

By the way - I've added a Guestbook (in the right hand column at the bottom of the page)  Please sign before you leave, I love to know who my visitors are!)

Monday's word - Honkatonk

I love Country and Western music OK, I know it's not everyone's cup of tea, but I really like it. Remember the old one 'I didn't know God made honkatonk angels'? Who sang that, anyone remember? Anyway, do you know where the term honkatonk comes from? I don't either - but here's a snippet I gleaned form Michael Quinion's *'Worldwide Words'. Unfortunately, it's unlikely to be true!

Every child of the range can tell what honkatonk means and where it came from. Away, away back in the very early days, so the story goes, a party of cow punchers rode out from camp at sundown in search of recreation after a day of toil. They headed for a place of amusement, but lost the trail. From far out in the distance there finally came to their ears a "honk-a-tonk-a-tonk-a-tonk-a," which they mistook for the bass viol. They turned toward the sound, to find alas! a flock of wild geese. So honkatonk was named.

[Evening Gazette (Reno, Nevada), 3 Feb. 1900.]


This article is reproduced with permission from:
*World Wide Words - copyright (c) Michael Quinion 2010. All rights reserved. The Words Web site is at http://www.worldwidewords.org/

Mondays Word - Guddling

 I've given the blog a 'makeover'.  Do you like my new 'look' ?  Drop me a comment and let me know!

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/

Monday's Word - Hyetal

There is a strange belief with some people that it always rains in my native Wales. Not true - and even if it were I would reply that it's what keeps Wales Green. In fact I remember summers as long and hot and sunny as one could wish for. However, be that as it may, I came across this in Michael Quinion's *'World Wide Words' which I thought rather interesting:

"You may wish to save this adjective for a rainy day, when you can enliven the inevitable discussion about the weather by dropping itinto the conversation. Do not, however, expect it to be understood,even though you're merely referring to rain...

'Hyetal' comes from Greek "huetos", rain, and is related to Greek"hyei", it is raining. It means "relating to rain". A hyetal chart is a rain chart; an isohyetal is a line on a map connecting placesof equal rainfall; a hyetograph is a self-registering rain gauge;and hyetology is the study of the geographical variation and annual
distribution of rainfall. Meteorologists, the main users of theword and its compounds, have extended the meaning to include all forms of precipitation."

Well, it could come in useful for scrabble contests!

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

By the way, I'm guest blogging at Anna K Lanier's Blog today.  If you'd like to drop by and leave me a comment it'll stop me feeling too lonely!

Mondays word:Snip

"It's a snip at only £5, the bookseller said.

"What exactly," I hear you ask is 'a snip'

"Snip" here is a British slang term recorded from the 1920s meaning a bargain or something surprisingly cheap. "Snip" has had other - conflicting - figurative senses down the centuries, including a swindle or deception, a sure thing, an insignificant person, and an easy task.

I'm not entirely sure what its origins are, but I thought it was an interesting phrase which over here we use without really thinking about it.  Is this a term you are familiar with? Have you any idea how it originated?

Mondays Word - Tumbarumba

I'm not given to swearing on my blog, and no, a tumbarumba is not a swear word - but there is the word b----y a little further down, so if you're a sensitive soul, be warned! LOL

According to Michael Quinion, "A tumbarumba is not a belly-dance to South American music, as a contestant in an Australian words competition once suggested. Nor does it directly address the small Australian town of that name that lies south-west of Canberra in New South Wales...

"No, 'tumbarumba' is another name for tmesis, one form of which is that curious trick of stuffing one word into the middle of another. "Abso-bloody-lutely", "a whole nother", "fan-bloody-tastic" and "any-blooming-where" are classic cases, though many of the most powerful examples include the F-word. For a reason buried in local linguistic history it's a verbal tic Australians are fond of, who insert their favourite adjective, "bloody", to great effect. "


I also recall Eliza Doolittle used the device in the musical 'My Fair Lady "...Oh so luverly sitting abso-blooming-lutely-still..."

Michael Quinion says the origin of the term is disputed, which may be so, but what a fun word to play with!

What do red roses and candles have to do with 'tumbarumba'? I hear you ask. Abso-blooming-lutely-nothing - I'm just still in a bit of a Valentine's mood, that's all! (Don't forget the CRR Blog Carnival in the previous post!)

*World Wide Words is copyright (c) Michael Quinion 2009. All rights reserved. The Words Web site is at http://www.worldwidewords.org/

Monday's Word

I haven't had a 'Mondays word for a couple of weeks, owing to Christmas and New Years posts taking precidence, however with the festivities over, I will once more wish everyone a joyous 2010 and get back to the 'usual format'.

As a fantasy/futuristic writer, I enjoy coming up with weird animals, especially if they have something about them that Earth bound readrs can recognise, without having to stretch their credulity too far. Of course there is a rich source of fabulous and mythical animals in literature and legends and I was interested in this creature which popped up in Michael Quinion's 'World Wide Words' this week, the manticore. The name can be traced back to an Old Persian word meaning a man-eater, and first appeared in English in John Trevisa's text. This is what else he has to say about it:

"This mythical beast is a favourite villain in fantasy stories and games, so much so that it is surely more widely known today than it has ever been. As one example, Harry Potter fans will know thatHagrid bred those nasty blast-ended skrewts from manticores.

The manticore was first mentioned in classical Greek writings 2,500 years ago, which reported rumours from the east. This is the way it was described in a famous medieval work by an English writer, which he based on Greek sources:

'It is said, that in India is a beast wonderly shapen, and is like to the bear in body and in hair, and to a man in face. And hath a right red head, and a full great mouth, and an horrible, and in either jaw three rows of teeth distinguished atween. The outer limbs thereof be as it were the outer limbs of a lion, and his tail is like to a wild scorpion, with a sting, and smiteth with hard bristle pricks as a wild swine, and hath an horrible voice, as the voice of a trumpet, and he runneth full
swiftly, and eateth men.'
(De Proprietatibus Rerum (On the Order of Things), by Bartholomaeus Anglicus, written about 1240. )"

Apparantly other writers and illustratorshave described the manticore as having wings, or the body of a tiger (which led to his name occasionally being rendered through folk etymology as "mantiger") he has been said to come from Africa as well as India.

All accounts agree that the manticore preyed on human flesh and would devour its victim leaving no trace behind - not a bad cover up for a murder in a fantasy story - at least it would give the poor old dragon a rest from being blamed for every mysterious disappearance!


(Illustration from Medieval Bestiary)


*World Wide Words is copyright (c) Michael Quinion 2009. All rights reserved. The Words Web site is at http://www.worldwidewords.org