World Wide Words -- 20 Sep 2014
Michael Quinion
michael.quinion at WORLDWIDEWORDS.ORG
Thu Sep 18 22:02:00 UTC 2014
World Wide Words
Issue 896: Saturday 20 September 2014
This mailing also contains a formatted version of the text.
This issue is also available online (http://wwwords.org/gwrt) .
Feedback, Notes and Comments
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ROCKING IT. Markham Anderson wrote, "Your piece on labradorite [last
week] reminded me of my mother-in-law, who was an inveterate rock
collector. We often identified rocks for her as leverite, as in,
"leave 'er right there!"
MESSING UP. Following my note on the US regional expression "mess and
gom" last time, Alan Burdick commented that he used the expression
"gum up the works", to spoil or mess up or interfere with the smooth
running of something. He wondered whether "gom" had turned into "gum".
The phrase is an elaboration of a US slang term of the early twentieth
century, to "gum" or "gum up". The Oxford English Dictionary puts it
under "gum", the glue or sticky stuff, which is the more likely
semantic route.
David Means remembers "gum up the works" being used by relatives in
Oklahoma 60 years ago, as well as a related version, "it's all gommed
up": "My understanding was that both phrases implied that something
thick and sticky had gotten into delicate machinery, although it had
many more applications than that literal sense."
I was unable to explain why "mess and gom" was used to refer to a
meal, though it turns out that I was right to suggest an association
with "mess" in the sense of a portion of food (it's the same word as
"mess" for a place to eat, as in "officers' mess"). Judy Mincey wrote,
"Mr Denson's wife's aunt used the phrase to mean eating up all the
leftovers. "Mess" is used in the sense of a mess of greens and "gom"
in the sense of gobble up. As a native Georgian, I have heard this all
my life, though it is uncommon now. My grandmother, a native of
Pickens County in north Georgia, used it." Robin Wilkinson added:
"Gom" is in current use by my mother, born 1916 in NE Texas. I might
ask 'Shall I add a scarf to this outfit?' Her reply would be 'No don't
gom it up.' Rather than just disorder, I have always associated "gom"
with a collection of unrelated items, as in various toys and hobbies
left out in the living room. To "mess and gom" would be to eat a
collection of unrelated leftovers for dinner."
Peely-wally
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Pronounced /ˈpiːlɪwɒli/
The referendum has been held and Scotland has decided to stay within
the United Kingdom. This would seem a good moment to celebrate a word
that's known chiefly north of the border. It means to be pale and
sickly or insipid and colourless in appearance and can refer to Scots'
national skin colour:
With his peely-wally complexion, freckles and shock of
ginger hair, Greg Rutherford looks like he could be
Scottish.
[The Herald (Glasgow), 30 Jul. 2014.]
We know it starts life around the early years of the nineteenth
century as the single word "peelie" for a person who is thin, gaunt or
pale. Dictionaries usually suggest it's an imitation of a slight,
high-pitched sound, perhaps a noise that someone in distress might
make. If so, it's linked to another imitative Scots word, "peek", for
the feeble cry of a small bird or animal, a whine or whimper of
complaint, or an insignificant person with a piping voice.
Wherever it came from, "peelie" became duplicated during the
nineteenth century to make "peely-wally". Some reference works say
that the second half is a nonsense word, but others point to the Scots
"wally". This isn't the relatively recent English slang term for a
silly or inept person, but means something that's made of china (a
"wally dug" is a china vase). It's from an Old English verb meaning to
fade. So somebody wally-like was as pale as china. Chambers Dictionary
suggests the paleness might be that of old-fashioned dentures. I
couldn't possibly comment.
Wordface
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WORDS IN THEIR TIME. The publication of the monumental two-volume
Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary
(http://wwwords.org/htoed) in 2009 after 40 years work was a landmark
in historical lexicography. In his new book, Words in Time and Place,
David Crystal has produced a layman's guide to its riches. In 15
themed chapters he investigates many of the words that English
speakers have used over the past millennium for a variety of concepts,
including food, pop music, spacecraft, money and dying. If you want to
know some of the words that people have used down the years for
endearments, to describe fools, or the imprecations and oaths that
they have uttered, this book will similarly give examples. One section
confirms that our notorious British predilection for talking about the
weather has a long history; you will find words such as "smolt" and
"reigh", which Anglo-Saxons used for calms and storms respectively;
Latin scholars coined "oragious" and "procellous" for tempestuous
conditions; at one time storms could be called "rugged", winds might
be "peaceable" and the sky after a storm "sleek". The book is a
browser's delight.
[Words in Time and Place, by David Crystal; Oxford University Press,
out 18 September 2014; ISBN 9780199680474; hardcover and ebook. Help
fund World Wide Words by buying from Amazon using the links on the
website.]
BEWARE THE WOODEN HILL. So many words for phobias have been created
that I sometimes wonder how anybody can get through the day without
suffering an adverse reaction to some aspect of life. While many of
these terms are facetious and badly formed, I recently came across one
for a real condition with a proper classical etymology:
"bathmophobia". It's not a fear of immersive ablutions but of stairs.
It's from Greek "bathmos", a step or threshold. Related is
"climacophobia", a fear of climbing stairs (a subtle but significant
difference), which is from Greek "klimax", a ladder or highest point,
from which our "climax" directly derives.
ON THE WAY. You may be a "transumer". If you commute or travel a lot,
you are a transit consumer and are likely to patronise retail outlets
at railway stations or airports. This sense of the word has been
around in the retail business for about a decade - it's said to have
been coined by the US design and business consultancy Fitch in 2003 -
though it's hardly known to the public. Or you may recognise yourself
in a description from trendwatching.com as a transumer in a different
sense, in which you live a transient lifestyle and have freed yourself
from the burden of permanent possessions. You might do so because you
travel abroad on business and prefer to rent rather than buy. Or you
may just have a very short attention span, need instant gratification
and quickly become bored with novelties.
Draw a line in the sand
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Q. From Mike Mellor: About the expression "draw a line in the sand" -
there are many theories online, and a local freebie newspaper has a
continuing correspondence on it. Its latest version is a British
officer drawing such a line for rioting natives to keep behind, or
face "lethal consequences". Is this true?
A. I've not been able to find an example of this exact event, but the
idea behind it clearly fits the meaning of the idiom. By literally or
figuratively drawing such a line, a person is saying "thus far and no
further", setting a limit to what is allowable.
Many people will remember it as one of the more quotable utterances of
President Bush when in August 1990 Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait:
"America and the world drew a line in the sand. We declared that the
aggression against Kuwait would not stand." The line wasn't a literal
one but an ultimatum that Saddam's actions were unacceptable.
As you've discovered, there are other stories, such as the famous one
about the line that the Spanish explorer Francisco Pizarro drew in
Peru in 1527, asking his men to choose between Peru with its riches
and Panama and its poverty. A biblical link to the Gospel of John is
also quoted, as is one to a Roman general who drew a circle in the
sand around King Antiochus IV, ordering him not to cross it until he
had replied to a Roman ultimatum.
There are probably many other historical examples. People have surely
been drawing demarcating lines for reasons of one kind or another for
as long as there have been people.
The first English idiom based on the idea is "draw the line", which is
known from the eighteenth century. An early example:
Whether the letters are genuine or not, the produce of
the "Lady's "or of any other pen, matters little; they
are sensible and satisfactory; and draw the "line
"between "real Christianity, "and "Methodism "(which
alas so many are apt to mistake) more clearly, than I
have yet seen it done by any writer.
[The Public Ledger (London), 7 Feb. 1761.]
The specific action of drawing a line in sand is an elaborated version
of the older saying that only began to be recorded within living
memory. This is from its early days:
The Communists in 1950 when the war started were
obviously trying to see how far they could go before
the free world drew a line in the sand and said, "This
Is It." We drew the line and showed the communists we
meant business.
[The Daily Republic (Mitchell, South Dakota), 28 Jul.
1953.]
Sic!
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Rhys Jones notes that Real Ale in Bowland, published by the Campaign
for Real Ale, wrote of one pub: "Serving award winning food, a pianist
accompanies your meal on Saturday evenings."
Paul Serotsky stumbled upon the following remarkable anniversary in
the 18 September issue of the Whangarei Report of New Zealand:
"Brilliant weather conditions blessed the Maungaturoto Bowling Club's
100th. centenary luncheon."
Benny Tiefenbrunner tells us that on 9 September the BBC website
reported on an accident in which the golfer, Greg Norman, injured his
hand with a chainsaw: "He said the chainsaw 'missed his artery by a
fraction of an inch' but has now returned home to rest and recover."
An email came to Monroe Thomas Clewis for a campaign contribution from
a fellow Democrat: "In 2012, after thirty-two years in Republican
hands, Brad Schneider finally won Illinois's 10th district for
Democrats."
Useful information
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