[Ads-l] kakistocracy

[George Thompson]

Amy West noted:
Personally, I'm tickled by the use of the phrase "you know what" in this
passage

This led me to look up "you know what" in the OED, where I found the
following:


   1. 1564

   The firste [thing] was, his greate surfettes in banqueting: the second
   his watchyng at Chesse and Cardes, the thirde you knowe what, Venus,
   Venus, God wote.

   W. Bullein, Dialogue against Fever Pestilence f. 14v[image: Citation
   details for W. Bullein, Dialogue against Fever Pestilence]
   2. *a*1680

   Who made a general Council regulate Mens catching Women by the—you know
   what.

   S. Butler, Genuine Remains (1759)  vol. I. 165

and later citations.

Personally, I'm tickled by the second of these quotations, referring as
it does to a practice that definitely won't be the subject of oppressive
regulation, these next few years.

GAT








On Sun, Nov 17, 2024 at 5:36 PM Amy West <medievalist at w-sts.com> wrote:

> On 11/16/24 00:00, ADS-L automatic digest system wrote:
> > Date:    Fri, 15 Nov 2024 19:30:33 +0000
> > From:    "Shapiro, Fred"<fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU>
> > Subject: Re: kakistocracy
> >
> > The Oxford English Dictionary's first citation for the word
> "kakistocracy" is dated 1829.  Here is a much earlier usage, probably as
> far back as can be found.  This is also a quite wonderful passage with a
> super-long sentence around the k-word.
> >
> > 1644 A sermon preached at the publique fast the ninth day of Aug. 1644
> at St. Maries, Oxford, before the honorable members of the two Houses of
> Parliament (1674)
> >
> > Prayer is for, or against: if we be friends to the peace of Ierusalem,
> we must be enemies to the enemies of it; if we pray for that, we must pray
> against these. Now if God be the authour of peace, warre and discord can
> have no authour but Gods adversary the Devill; and they that are the
> stirrers up and fomenters of it, must needs be his instruments whosoever
> they be. If the peace-makers be blessed, for they shall be called the
> sonnes of God; then cursed are the warre-makers, cursed to the pit of hell,
> for they shall be called you know what:
>
> Personally, I'm tickled by the use of the phrase "you know what" in this
> passage^
>
> ---Amy West
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society -
> https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.americandialect.org&d=DwICaQ&c=slrrB7dE8n7gBJbeO0g-IQ&r=v2Wtu7DQZxSBMSJv-oEMNg&m=lNyDo65CaQ8XJEfVIL5waTJwJ5xPMINc9g8YgPBndf6ifvYKe3qklYynNJBsdMF6&s=y0zuhcveKa9mqoNknEXL_7NC9lrjsMAEKYNwIhGgsKA&e=
>


-- 
George A. Thompson
Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern
Univ. Pr., 1998.

But when aroused at the Trump of Doom / Ye shall start, bold kings, from
your lowly tomb. . .
L. H. Sigourney, "Burial of Mazeen", Poems.  Boston, 1827, p. 112

The Trump of Doom -- also known as The Dunghill Toadstool.  (Here's a
picture of his great-grandfather.)

https://heritagecollections.parliament.uk/collections/getrecord/HOP_WOA_3851

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org