Happy Birthday, lance_foxx!

[the_gneech]

For your present, here's today's Forgotten English (© Jeffrey Kacirk):

ignify
To burn.

--Thomas Blount's Glossographia, 1656

Shrove Tuesday
derives its name from the ancient practice in the Church of Rome of confessing sins and being shrived, or shrove -- obtaining absolution -- on this day. ... When Shrove Tuesday dawned, the bells were set a-ringing, and everybody abandoned himself to amusement and good humour. All through the day there was a preparing and devouring of pancakes, as if some profoundly important religious principle were involved in it. The pancake and Shrove Tuesday are inextricably associated in the mind and old literature. Before the pancakes were eaten, there was always a great deal of contention among the eaters to see which could most adroitly toss them in the pan. Shakespeare makes his clown [Lavache] in All's Well That Ends Well speak of something being "as fit as a pancake for Shrove Tuesday." It will be recollected that the parishioners of The Vicar of Wakefield "religiously ate pancakes at Shrovetide."

--W. & R. Chambers' Book of Days, 1864

It's also Mardi Gras! *tosses beads around willy-nilly*

-The Gneech

Comments

[jedi-iwakura.livejournal.com]

THROW ME SOME BEADS, MISTER!!!

[radbaron.livejournal.com]

Mardi Gras, meaning "Fat Tuesday" in French , mais oui. It comes from the using of all the fat, lard, grease etc that was in the household at the time. The easiest thing to make with it is pancakes (flour water grease, maybe eggs) so that was what was consumed. Fat products were not consumed during Lent by many French Catholics, so into the baking it went.

[hollyannvix.livejournal.com]

Yay Pancakes!! =D

[tr-wolf.livejournal.com]

Oh, thats not forgotten English, we still say Shrove Tuesday in the UK.