World Wide Words -- 10 Mar 01

[Michael Quinion]

WORLD WIDE WORDS          ISSUE 227          Saturday 10 March 2001
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Editor: Michael Quinion    ISSN 1470-1448    Thornbury, Bristol, UK
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Contents
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1. Feedback, notes and comments.
2. Turns of Phrase: Nu-metal.
3. Weird Words: Liripipe.
4. Q & A: Swag, Mumpsimus.
5. List commands, IPA, and copyright.


1. Feedback, notes and comments
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OXFORD COMMA  An interesting correspondence followed my piece about
this last week, from which it has become clear that attitudes to it
even in its heartland in the US are mixed, with newspapers tending
to avoid it, while book publishers prefer it. Several people cited
the apocryphal book dedication, "To my parents, Ayn Rand and God",
which shows the perils of leaving out the final comma.


2. Turns of Phrase: Nu-metal
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As 'nu' here is the common pop-music respelling of 'new', the term
pretty much explains itself - it's a revitalised form of the heavy
metal musical genre of the seventies and eighties, a style of loud,
vigorous and often harsh-sounding rock music that was linked to an
intense and spectacular performing style. Metal drifted out of
fashion in the nineties, though it never went away completely.

The 'nu-metal' format is most closely associated with bands like
Korn, Limp Bizkit, Slipknot, the Deftones, Amen and Papa Roach, and
the genre is often linked to the American music producer Ross
Robinson, often called "the guru of nu-metal". The performing style
is still as heavily amplified and intense; 'nu-metal' gigs were
described by Nicholas Barber in the _Independent on Sunday_ not
long ago as "costumed, pyrotechnic riots of blood, sweat and
earth-shaking volume", though he also complained that the lyrics
were self-pitying and peevish.

At the same time, the tremendous popularity of nu-metal acts like
Korn and Limp Bizkit means kids are getting into heavier music
again and thus might harbour a new interest in some of the longer-
lived bands on the metal circuit.
                                        [_Toronto Star_, Jun. 2000]

They call his music "nu-metal" but it sounded pretty old to me.
Pounding guitars, hammer horror keyboards and bam bam drums compete
with Manson's creaky old hag-like voice - which bears an uncanny
similarity to Mr Punch's wife Judy.
                                          [_The Mirror_, Jan. 2001]


3. Weird Words: Liripipe
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The long tail of a hood in medieval or academic costume.
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Nobody seems to know much about the origin of this word, except
that it comes from medieval Latin 'liripipium', variously explained
down the centuries as the tippet of a hood, a cord, a shoe-lace and
the inner sole-leather of shoes. This suggests strongly that nobody
has the slightest idea what it really meant.

What we do know is that the English word (on occasion appearing as
'liripoop', for reasons that are entirely obscure) was used for a
dangling extension to the point of a medieval hood. Hoods like
these were at first worn by academics as part of their formal
dress; indeed a few universities still use the word 'liripipe' for
their graduates' ceremonial sashes. Later on, liripipes became part
of everyday wear on a hood called a 'chaperon', a word that is
closely related to the modern French 'chapeau'.

Over time, liripipes became steadily longer, sometimes down to the
ankles; this was hardly practical, so the liripipe was often wound
around the head to keep it out of the way. As well as longer, it
also grew more ornamental as time passed. The hoods went out of
fashion in the fifteenth century and 'liripipe' became a semi-
fossil word, most commonly used today by historians of fashion and
the occasional academic institution.

By the seventeenth century, the 'chaperon' had become an item of
female costume exclusively. About a century later the word began to
be used figuratively for a married or elderly woman protecting a
young woman - a 'chaperone', as we now spell it. A writer in 1864
explained that "Chaperon ... when used metaphorically means that
the experienced married woman shelters the youthful debutante as a
hood shelters the face".


4. Q&A
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[Send your queries to <qa at worldwidewords.org>. All messages will be
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If I can, a response will appear here and on the Words Web site. If
you wish to comment, please e-mail <editor at worldwidewords.org>.]

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Q. Today the word 'swag' is used by radio announcers to describe
free advertising products and prize give-aways. I thought it was a
relatively new use for a word that previously described a type of
lamp. Today however, I saw it again in a book written by C S Lewis
in 1958: "Some young hooligans...had already sold the swag, and
some had previous convictions against them". Would you have any
insight into the origins of this word? [Daryl Sawatzky]

A. 'Swag' has a surprising number of meanings. It has been around
for at least 200 years for a thief's plunder or booty, the sense
that C S Lewis was using. The idea of give-aways is more recent,
but even that has a longer history than one might guess from the
comparatively recent American usage you quote. And, of course,
among other meanings, 'swag' is also the Australian word for a
bundle of personal belongings carried by a traveller, tramp, or
'swagman'.

It looks as though all these can be traced back to a word imported
into Middle English from Scandinavian 'svagga', to sway (in fact,
it's the origin of 'sway' as well). At first, the verb meant to
rock unsteadily or lurch, but evolved into that of hanging loosely
or heavily, to sag. Another sense of 'swag' I haven't yet mentioned
comes from the same idea - for an ornamental festoon, or for fabric
fastened so it hangs in a drooping curve; this was first recorded
at the end of the eighteenth century. It's also the origin of the
American 'swag lamp' sense you mention, in which the lamp's
electrical cable hangs in a swag.

Originally, a thief's swag was a bag of stolen clothes or the like.
This and the Australian swag derive from the idea of a bundle that
sags or hangs down. Think of the stereotypical image of a tramp
with his swag hanging from a pole over his shoulder; it's not
accidental that in cartoons the thief's swag is always shown in a
sack.

However, there's some suggestion there was another word involved,
also Scandinavian, the one that led to a citation for 'swag' in the
_Oxford English Dictionary_ from 1303. In that it meant a bulgy
bag. The evidence suggests it didn't survive in its own right, but
it's possible that it influenced later senses.

One early glossary says that 'swag' referred to any stolen goods
except money, but the evidence suggests it altered through the
nineteenth century until it meant small valuable items that could
be easily disposed of, such as silverware.

That idea seems to have been picked up in North American youth
slang comparatively recently to mean valuables or money. The sense
of freebie stuff might seem to be a development of that.

However, Jonathon Green, the author of the _Cassell Dictionary of
Slang_, has pointed out to me a book of about 1921 by Tom Norman, a
travelling fairground showman in Britain, entitled _The Penny
Showman_. He wrote about a stall that was: "set out with the usual
showman's swag, such as fancy cups and saucers, gaudy vases,
shaving mugs, etc", that is, the tawdry prizes that might be won.
Eric Partridge, in his _Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional
English_, also gives this showman's sense, suggesting it dates from
the end of the nineteenth century.

This is not so far distant from the advertising give-aways you
mention, and may indeed be its direct ancestor.

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Q. Long ago I read a story of a monk transcribing religious
documents, who continued to transcribe one Latin word incorrectly,
even after having it pointed out. The word is something like
'mumpsimumps'. Can you help me locate this word? [Bonnie Lee]

A. You're nearly right: it's 'mumpsimus'. But the story is not
quite the way you tell it. According to the tale, there was once a
medieval monk who persistently said a phrase in the Latin Eucharist
wrongly, either because he was illiterate and had learned it that
way or because it had been transcribed incorrectly in his copy.
Instead of "quod in ore sumpsimus", he would say "quod in ore
mumpsimus". Now 'sumpsimus' is Latin for "we have taken" (the full
phrase means "which we have taken into the mouth"), but 'mumpsimus'
is just nonsense.

What made this particular mistake memorable is what the monk was
supposed to have said when he was corrected. According to the
version of the incident told in 1517 by Richard Pace, later the
Dean of St Paul's Cathedral in London, the monk replied that he had
said it that way for forty years and "I will not change my old
'mumpsimus' for your new 'sumpsimus'".

As a result, the word came to be applied to someone who sticks
obstinately to their old ways, in spite of the clearest evidence
that they are wrong. The word can also have the related meaning of
some custom or notion that is adhered to, even though it has been
shown to be unreasonable.

Some references suggest that the story may have been first told by
Pace's friend Erasmus; there's also a hint that it may really have
been an oft-told joke in medieval times. The word is first recorded
in 1530 in a book by William Tyndale, the first translator of the
Bible into English, called _The Practice of Prelates_. It was given
royal approval in 1545, when Henry VIII referred to it in a speech:
"Some be too stiff in their old mumpsimus, others be too busy and
curious in their sumpsimus".

It has, perhaps surprisingly, stayed in the language as a learned
joke for more than 400 years, and is still to be stumbled over from
time to time.


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