dudgeon, dudgeon, dudgen, etc.

[Douglas G. Wilson]

On 7/14/2012 12:42 PM, Stephen Goranson wrote:
> ....
> OED has three entries:
> (1) dudgeon, n.1. A kind of wood used by turners, esp. for handles of knive=
> s daggers, etc.; dagger hilt; dagger.
> (2) dudgeon, n.2 and adj. A feeling of anger, resentment, or offence; ill h=
> umour; Resentful; ill-humored.
> " Origin unknown; identical in form with dudgen n. and adj.<http://www.oed.=
> com/view/Entry/58233#eid6086442>; but provisionally separated as having, so=
>   far as is known, no connection of sense."
> (3) dudgen, n. and adj. Poor stuff, trash; mean, poor contemptible; ? ordin=
> ary, homely. "...perhaps the same as dudgeon n.1<http://www.oed.com/view/En=
> try/58234#eid6086542> : a dagger with a handle of this material being cheap=
>   and often regarded as an inferior, unreliable weapon; ..."
>
> The wood may have been softwood, possibly from roots, not always considered=
>   top quality. See, e.g., the note in the 1873 New Variorum edition of MacBe=
> th ("And on my blade and dudgeon gouts of blood"):
> http://books.google.com/books?id=3DbAsVAAAAYAAJ&pg=3DPA90&lpg=3DPA90&dq=3Da=
> ppiatum&source=3Dbl&ots=3Dcn4zqPL0w1&sig=3DBNhIfmfUSnZMJpVfnhsWzhaeDzc&hl=
> =3Den&sa=3DX&ei=3DrosBUKviLIf48gTPzMGjCA&ved=3D0CDsQ6AEwAQ#v=3Donepage&q=3D=
> appiatum&f=3Dfalse
>
> Dudgeon (2) is often preceeded by the verb "take," which at least raises th=
> e question whether "take the handle" (literally or figuratively) might conn=
> ect the senses. E.g., in a 1577 edition of Hollinshed's Chronicles (EEBO): =
> ".....takyng the matter in dudgeon, made no more wordes,...."
>
> The same book may combine the emotion sense and the weapon sense:
> ...taking this knauishe knacke in dudgeon, burled [hurled?]his Dagger at hi=
> m...
>
> A figurative use:
> 1602   T. Dekker Satiro-mastix sig. (OED & EEBO),   I am too well ranckt..t=
> o bee stab'd with his dudgion wit. [Perhaps compare Shakespeare 1603 "speak=
> e daggers."]
>
> Another text that may be worth considering (at HathiThrust) is
> Bibliotheca scholastica : a double dictionarie, penned for all those that w=
> ould haue within short space the use of the Latin tongue, either to speake,=
>   or write ... / compiled by Iohn Rider ...
> by Rider, John, 1562-1632
> Published 1589, unnumbered page, col. 3
> http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=3Ducm.5327258510;seq=3D145;size=3D300=
> ;view=3Dimage
>
> A.  Dudgeon haft.
> I.  Manubrium apiattum.
> Taking a thing in dudgeon.
> I. Indignatus, p.
--

For comparison, here is my own speculation, quoted from my post here in
2006:

<< .... French (or less likely Latin) "indigne" meaning "indignant" read
humorously or erroneously as if "indigen" or so, thus new English "in
digeon/dudgeon" meaning "indignant[ly]" (where "digeon" is a variant of
the older English word "dudgeon" = "type of wood" [OED]), then "dudgeon"
= "indignation" or so by back-formation. I highly doubt that I'm the
first or second or third to independently speculate such an obvious
etymology ....>>

I think this "dudgeon" in early instances tends very strongly to occur
in the collocation "in dudgeon", and this is just too similar
orthographically to the equivalent "indignant"/"indigné"/etc.

(I cannot easily review the latest OED version; [last I knew] this work
is not readily available to hoi blue-collar polloi.)

-- Doug Wilson

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