World Wide Words -- 30 July 11
Michael Quinion
wordseditor at WORLDWIDEWORDS.ORG
Fri Jul 29 16:28:20 UTC 2011
WORLD WIDE WORDS ISSUE 747 Saturday 30 July 2011
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Author/editor: Michael Quinion US advisory editor: Julane Marx
Website: http://www.worldwidewords.org ISSN 1470-1448
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Contents
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1. Feedback, notes and comments.
2. Weird Words: Gimcrack.
3. Wordface.
4. Q and A: Red-headed stepchild.
5. Sic!
A. Subscription information.
B. E-mail contact addresses.
C. Ways to support World Wide Words.
1. Feedback, notes and comments
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BORAMETZ Jamie Greenbaum wrote from Australia: "In a delightful
coincidence from the other end of the continent, the Chinese were
bamboozled by cotton for centuries. Early in the thirteenth century
Genghis Khan summoned a Chinese Taoist leader to his base in
Central Asia. A disciple of the Taoist later published a record of
the journey and it was translated by Arthur Waley some 80 years ago
under the title The Travels of an Alchemist. A footnote by Waley
reads: 'The Chinese, being unfamiliar with cotton, could not
believe that a stuff was obtained by cultivating a tree, and
imagined that a lamb, being buried, produced a crop of fresh lambs
next year. This legend can be traced back in China to the sixth
century. Allusions to it are frequent in Chinese literature.'"
David Sutton pointed out that I missed the appearance of the word
in several dictionaries, including the Oxford English Dictionary,
because "borametz" is also spelled "barometz". The OED suggests
that the word was probably borrowed from Russian "baranets" for a
species of club-moss, the link perhaps being that the Russian word
is a diminutive of "baran", a ram.
ANATOMICAL SNUFFBOX Chris Duncombe Rae corrected an alternative
name that I provided for this anatomical feature: "It turns out the
radial fossa is on the humerus, the bone of the upper arm, nowhere
near the wrist. It seems that the formal name for the anatomical
snuff box is just that."
2. Weird Words: Gimcrack /'dZImkrak/
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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.
As high-paying consumers of education, they do not
want to graduate with a gimcrack qualification that does
little to enhance their career prospects.
[Daily Telegraph, 28 Jun. 2011.]
"Gimcrack" is a member of a fine collection of disparaging words
for such items that includes "bauble", "trinket", "knick-knack",
"gewgaw", "bric-a-brac", "kickshaw" and "tchotchke".
Of these, "tchotchke" (see http://wwwords.org?TCHTC) is from Polish
via Yiddish. "Kickshaw" is a curious English transformation of the
French "quelque chose". "Bric-a-brac" is French, from the obsolete
à bric et à brac, at random. Nobody knows where "gewgaw" comes
from. We can trace "gimcrack" back to the Middle English
"gibecrake", but there the trail runs cold, though it has been
suggested that it's linked to the Old French "giber" to shake or
kick (which might also be the origin of "jib" in the sense of a
horse baulking).
"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.
3. Wordface
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WHAT'S IN A NAME? The results were announced late last week of the
second annual UK competition to find common names for species of
plants and animals that are known only by their formal scientific
titles. The idea behind the competition is that such names will
help people who aren't specialists to get to know and remember the
species. Rachael Blackman from Swindon was struck by the shape of a
lurid orange fungus that lives among moss, known until now to its
friends only as Octospora humosa. She decided that it looked like
lips and the colour immediately suggested the name HOTLIPS, which
delighted the judges and gained her first prize. What makes the
name especially appropriate is that the fungus is a member of a
group called discomycetes, discos for short. So Octospora humosa
now glories in the name of HOTLIPS DISCO.
ADAM'S BATH A question about this expression has come from James
Grebe. He wrote, "I recently read the memoirs of Gerald Brenan in
which he described his London flat as having an 'Adam's bath'. Was
this another way of saying that his washing facility was no more
than a wash basin or sink?" I don't know and can't find out. Can
anybody help?
4. Q and A: Red-headed stepchild
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Q. What is the origin of the phrase "beat you like a red-headed
stepchild"? I hear it often these days, and most explanations seem
contrived when I look it up. It seems to me that "stepchild" is a
euphemism for "bastard", but that is only a guess. Can you satisfy
my curiosity? [George Gorski, USA]
A. I'd never heard it before, at least not to remember it, but a
look at various online sources confirms your perception that "red-
headed stepchild" has become a moderately common term, although
your fuller version is rather rarer. A recent appearance:
Considering he spent the last two minutes of the fight
beating Penn like a red-headed stepchild with hammer-
fists and elbows but was unable to get The Prodigy to
tap, I'd say Fitch's killer instinct remains
questionable.
[The Toronto Sun, 2 Mar. 2011.]
The meaning of "red-headed stepchild" is clear enough: it's used to
describe a person who is neglected, mistreated or unwanted. The
evidence shows that it was originally American; it has spread not
only to Canada but also to the UK, though it's unusual here and
almost always appears in writing by Americans.
It goes back some way. The earliest example I can find is this:
From the day the Republican party came into power the
South has been treated like a red-headed stepchild.
[The Post-Standard (Syracuse, NY) 29 Jun. 1910.]
We don't need to assume bastardy. It's sufficient to think of the
traditional poor deal suffered by a stepchild in a family. To have
red hair was uncommon enough that a person with it was distrusted
and disliked. This would contribute to a stepchild being considered
not to belong in a family and encourage bad treatment, including
beatings. Some writers have suggested that it's specifically the
result of anti-Irish feeling in the US, some Irish men and women
having red hair. I can't confirm that, but I have to wonder why it
didn't apply equally to people of Scots origin.
6. Sic!
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Two widely reproduced online reports of 22 July about an incident
in a suburb of Atlanta, Georgia, had equally strangely constructed
headlines: "McDonald's boss punches mom with service dog" (spotted
by Ernie Scheuer and Gordon Schochet); and "McDonald's manager
accused of hitting mom with autistic sons" (found by Robert Wake).
My wife and I stayed at a country hotel in Scotland last weekend.
Strolling in the grounds, we repeatedly came across signs nailed to
trees: "Please be aware of falling branches". This curiously worded
caution aroused the logician in me. One could hardly be utterly
unaware of a falling branch, even if only for a microscopic moment
before it knocked your brains out.
What power a hyphen has. Roger Beale wrote, "A friend of mine has
just bought a pair of summer shoes from Marks and Spencer that
carry a label reading 'Slip On Deck Shoes'."
An aim reported in CBC News Digest on 27 July about Prince Edward
Island (PEI, population about 140,000) struck Stephen Foster as
over-ambitious: "PEI is at an all-time high with 96 family doctors
in the province, and the government isn't giving up on its goal of
a doctor for every Islander, says Health Minister Carolyn Bertram."
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