[Ads-l] antedating "sheela-na-gig"

[Jonathan Lighter]

It may well mean "A Shilling a Jig," {gig} being an old spelling.

WikiP has a good article on "Sheela na gig," which cites a 16-gun British
sloop-of-war "Shelanagig" from 1780. If that really is the word under
discussion, it might be the weirdest warship name ever.

The article also includes the word "anasyrma," which appears in neither MW
nor OED. It gets its own WikiP article and is apparently well known to
folklorists.

JL

On Fri, Oct 17, 2025 at 8:37 PM Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
wrote:

> OED: 1844
>
> ca1805 John Buttrey "Fife Tune Ms." No. 22 [
> https://buttreymilitarysocialtunes1800.wordpress.com/melodies/]:
> A Shiling a Gig  A Retreat.
>
> Buttrey was a fifer in the British army and a terrible speller.
> Conceivably this is "A Shilling a Gig," but it isn't clear to me what that
> would mean.
>
> JL
>
> --
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>


-- 
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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