Longest Afternoon EVAR

[the_gneech]

Meh ... how can I write, draw, or work on gaming while still looking like I'm actually doing work? Hmm.

In other news, here's Today's Forgotten English.

scare-a-job
A phrase implying that the job will be nearly finished, and tantamount to the expression, "making it look foolish." Essex.

--James Halliwell's Dictionary of Archaic and Provincial Words, 1855

On this date in 1801, Britain's first census was begun. In a subsequent survey, conducted in 1881, residents were asked to furnish their "rank, profession, or occupation." Some of the more puzzling responses, as preserved by the London Genealogical Society, included:

• Maker of sand views
  
• Invisible net maker
  
• Colourist of artificial fish
  
• Knight of the Thimble
  
• Disinfector of railways
  
• Carrot and mangle salesman
  
• Boy for general purposes
  
• Electric bath attendant
  
• Count as female
  
• Scarecrow
  
• Drowner
  
• Fish-bender
  
• Cow-banger
  
• Running about
  
• Goldfish-catcher
  
• Grape-dryer

Well no wonder there was somebody running about, with all that cow-banging and fish-bending going on! What I can't figure out is how a job being nearly finished makes it look foolish.

-The Gneech, boy for general purposes

Comments

[azhreia.livejournal.com]

isn't "foolish" one of those words that have changed meaning over time?

I remember someone in my family looking up family trees, and being incensed that a distant relative was described as "a shoddy worker".

nowadays we are used to the word "shoddy" meaning substandard or inadequate. But shoddy was a type of cloth, and a shoddy worker was a weaver who made that type of cloth.

words are tricky little buggers, and you have to make sure you actually understand them in context ;-)