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| Gimcrack, orginal painting by George Stubbs |
"This word was in the news this month because a 1765 painting by George Stubbs, entitled Gimcrack on New Market Heath, featuring a famous racehorse, was sold for $35.79 million. Gimcrack was very successful: he won 27 of his 36 races in a career that spanned 7 seasons and the Gimcrack Stakes at York was named after him.
His success and the immense price for the painting are at odds with the usual meaning of "gimcrack", a useless ornament or something showy of little real worth....
...'Gimcrack' started life to describe some kind of inlaid work in wood but later changed to mean a fanciful notion or mechanical contrivance. It became popular in the eighteenth century in the modern sense. It may seem a strange name to give a horse, but as its sire was called Cripple and Gimcrack was small, it may have been a witticism or an attempt at defensive magic by seeming to disparage something you wanted to succeed. If so, it worked."
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*World Wide Words is copyright © Michael Quinion 2011. All rights reserved The original post can be found at: http://www.worldwidewords.org
Have a great week folks - and if you missed Smashwords' half price offer on Dancing With Fate, drop me a line a Lyn at hywelalyn dot co dot UK and I'll send you a discount coupon.
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http://kindlegraph.com/books?utf8=%E2%9C%93&search=Children+of+the+mist
'STARQUEST' 'CHILDREN OF THE MIST' (The sequel to Starquest) Dancing With Fate
'Freeread' :'A BARGAIN WITH DEATH
