Gism (1901): something odd

[Wilson Gray]

I agree with Mark. I just didn't have the nerve to be the first to say
what seems so clearly obvious that it might be wrong. :-)

-Wilson

On 9/19/07, Mark Mandel <thnidu at gmail.com> wrote:
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Mark Mandel <thnidu at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Gism (1901): something odd
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> I assume 'semen'. I've seen it written "jism".
>
> m a m
>
>
> On 9/18/07, Douglas G. Wilson <douglas at nb.net> wrote:
> >
> > From Google Books:
> >
> > ----------
> >
> > E. D. Gillespie, _A Book of Remembrances_ (Lippincott, Philadelphia,
> > 1901): p. 33:
> >
> > <<This so amused my mother and her sister, that on repeating the
> > story to my grandmother she instantly wrote these verses: / ... /
> > "Now, mother, when we wish to soar / And cut a dash at 'Bellespore,'
> > / You will repeat some vulgarism, / What we call nectar you call gism.">>
> >
> > ----------
> >
> > This verse, ostensibly quoted from E. D. Gillespie's mother, would
> > have been written around 1800, I think. The context: a bookish girl
> > had claimed that her sister had gone out to read poetry ("Night
> > Thoughts"), but their unpretentious mother had spoiled the illusion
> > by saying that the girl had gone out to get "a mess of poke".
> >
> > I don't know what "Bellespore" means ("Belle Espoir"?).
> >
> > What does "gism" mean here?
> >
> > -- Doug Wilson
> >
> >
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All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
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