What Was I Saying...?

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

Bristol man's gift

A present of something which the giver pronounces to be of no use, or of no value to himself.

—Henry Reddall's Fact, Fancy, and Fable, 1889

Memorial Day

Decoration Day

A public holiday, now called Memorial Day, originally set apart for the decoration of graves of those who fell during America's Civil War. In Teresina in America (1975), French traveler Maria Theresa Longworth described aspects of Southern life possibly changed forever by this conflict: "I was informed that before the war, any traveler passing near a plantation in a part of the country where no hotel existed would be hospitably entertained by the planters. But this custom has been quite broken up, and with it the last remains of hospitality in the United States. It may, perhaps, be imported again from Europe as a luxury, but the real spirit of hospitality does not exist in the country. Of real good nature I met with very few specimens. Making presents is not at all usual. Ladies will barter and exchange with each other articles of dress, and the greatest surprise will be expressed if the coveted article should be offered as a present."

Maybe … or maybe they were just put off by the attitude. ;P

-TG

Happy birthday to aeto! And happy belated birthday to snapcat and patchworkjester! Hope you guys don't mind sharing today's Forgotten English!

ettes

Suffragettes; women organized for a political purpose.

—Maurice Weseen's A Dictionary of American Slang, 1934

Birthday of Amelia Jenks Bloomer (1818-1894),

a demure American schoolteacher who became an activist for the abolition of slavery, for temperance, and for the women's and children's rights movements. Her most enduring contribution to the plight of women came as a result of her articles in the women's newspaper The Lily popularizing a comfortable new type of clothing introduced in the 1820s by Indiana's New Harmony utopian society. This practical waist-to-ankle garment offered an alternative to the wasp-waist corsets, layers of petticoats, and long, inconvenient skirts that women felt compelled to wear. It consisted of a loose bodice and a knee-length skirt worn over pantaloons. This fashion […] was quickly ridiculed in newspapers, at social gatherings, and even from the pulpit as being libertine and immoral. Bloomer sensed that the persistent criticism was distracting attention from more important issues, and she and some followers abandoned the distinctive dress. But about 1851 others began to see "Amelia Bloomer's costume" as a symbol of the women's movement. For the next century, the term bloomers denoted a woman's underwear or loose outer trousers.

"Amelia's Libertine Trousers" would make a good name for a rock band.

-The Gneech

For your present, here's the past weekend's Forgotten English (© Jeffrey Kacirk):

gothicism

Rudeness of manners, barbariousness. Gothicize, to bring back to gothicism.

—Rev. John Boag's Imperial Lexicon, c. 1850

Armed Forces Day [the 17th]

Feast Day of St. Theodotus,

a patron of innkeepers. The anonymous publication Decorum (1877), which described aspects of Victorian etiquette, offered this tip on refreshing oneself in mixed company: "If you are walking with a woman in the country, ascending a mountain or strolling by the bank of a river, and your companion, being fatigued, should choose to sit upon the ground, on no account allow yourself to do the same but remain rigorously standing. To do otherwise would be flagrantly indecorous, and she would probably resent it as the greatest insult." About this time, verbal insults also differed from those used today. Marie Hayden's Terms of Disparagement in American Dialectic Speech (c. 1917) included examples from the animal kingdom such as lobster, "applied to one who is awkward and unsociable," clam, "a sneaking fellow," moth, "a prostitute," sardine for a simpleton, tadpole to indicate a person's insignificance, and porpoise to describe an overweight person.

Good ol' Victorian arbitrariness!

-The Gneech

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

fire-drake

Properly, [a] fiery dragon, or fiery meteor; applied to a man with a red nose.

—C. T. Onions' Oxford Shakespeare Glossary, 1911

Flora Day and St. Michael's Day

Many years ago, Helston was threated with destruction by a fiery dragon who appeared in the sky and hovered for some days over the place, bearing in his claws a red-hot ball. The terrified residents escaped to neighboring villages, leaving behind them, sad to say, the old and weak to perish. At last, however, the dragon passed over Helston and dropped the fiery ball upon the downs more than half a mile away, at a spot still pointed out. Thus the town was saved, and this deliverance is commemorated every year on the 8th of May by a festivity called Flora Day. … There was once a fearful contest for the possession of the town between St. Michael, the patron saint of its church, and the arch fiend.

—William Henderson's Folklore of the Northern Counties of England, 1879

So the dragon appeared, floated around for days holding a burning ball, then dropped it in a swamp and wandered off?

...

What was his motivation?

-The Gneech

Since your birthday was Saturday, for your present, here's the past weekend's Forgotten English (© Jeffrey Kacirk):

cupidity

Unlawful longing, concupiscence, lust.

—Stephen Jones' Pronouncing and Explanatory Dictionary, 1818

Unlawful or unreasonable longings.

—Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language, 1755

An eager desire to possess something; an ardent wishing or longing; an inordinate or unlawful desire of wealth or power.

—Rev. John Boag's Imperial Lexicon, c. 1850

The Lusty Month of May

Although May was once considered a month for courtship and romantic interlude, it was considered bad form and a very unlucky time to marry, which may be why the June wedding became so popular. Sir Thomas Malory wrote of this sexual urge in Le Morte d'Arthur (1485): "The month of May was come, when every lusty heart beginneth to blossom, and to bring forth fruit; for like as herbs and tress bring forth fruit and flourish in May, likewise every lusty heart that is in any manner a lover, springeth and flourish in lusty deeds. For it giveth unto all lovers courage, that lusty month of May." Records suggest that January was once the month when the most babies were born in England, prompting speculation that this was due to the increased springtime libido.

Leading naturally to that awful song in Camelot. I'm intrigued by the concept of "unlawful longing," although I have hard time imagining a law against longings, except possibly under the influence of Oliver Cromwell.

-The Gneech

My resolution to pick up the berfday posts again has taken a beating. As in, I haven't done any all month. ¬.¬

So without further delay, happy belated birthday to mooivos, katayamma, guigar, trpeal, the late not forgotten wabbitcalif, babsbunny, bjbuttons, banditloaf, and berin!

Hope you don't mind sharing today's Forgotten English (© Jeffrey Kacirk)...

buttermilk cow
A bull. When children ask why a bull is not milked, they are told that he is a "buttermilk cow."

--Rollo Brown's A Word List from Western Indiana, 1912

Write No Evil
On April 24, 1704, America's first continuously published newspaper, the Boston News-Letter, printed its first issue. French visitor Maria Theresa Longworth's Teresina in America (1875) had little good to say about the American newspapers she encountered: "American newspapers contain most startling reading to strangers unaccustomed to such exposés. In England or France they would soon be suppressed by law. Their effect on young minds must be destructive to all purity and innocence. I was informed that an Act of Congress was in progress to restrain this wholesale exposure of vice. Notwithstanding all this, ladies pretend to faint if they hear the words 'bull' or 'donkey.' There are houses, certainly, where newspapers are not admitted into the family. ... American ladies scruple [hesitate] as little to display their legs as do Boulogne matoettes [fast women], but to mention them greatly shocks their sensibilities. They are particular even to straitlacedness in what they say, but not often in what they do."

'cause, y'know, vice is so much better when it's kept secret.

-The Gneech

For your present, here's today's Forgotten English!

philoprogenitiveness
The instinctive love of offspring. A hybrid word [from the pseudoscience of phrenology] from Greek philos, loving, and Latin progenies, progeny.

--Daniel Lyons' American Dictionary of the English Language, 1897

Birthday of Franz Joseph Gall (1757-1828),
the Swabian founder of the pseudoscience known as phrenology. According to this system, the bumps, shape, and size of one's skull determined a person's capacity for various physical and mental functions. Inhabitiveness was just one of a litany of odd names for the various functions coined by Gall and his followers. Others included marvellousness, which was determined to have its seat in the upper parietal regions of the skull; adhesiveness, located in the occipital area; amativeness (based on amorousness), found in the cerebellum just above the back of the neck; and eventuality, which supposedly arose from the gray matter just above and behind the bridge of the nose. The theories of phrenology were developed in eastern Europe, but "applied phrenology" took hold in small-town America, where itinerant "bump doctors" shared the medical stage with snake-oil salesmen and other mountebanks.

"Swabian"?

That reminds me of "The Physiognomizer," a weird science gadget I created for the Technomancer's Toybox supplement for Mage: The Ascension. The Physiognomizer was this enormous machine you'd strap people into with a metal dome over their head, and it would change their personality by altering the shape of their skull. It was primarily intended as a "mind control" gadget for evil masterminds, although I suppose Doc Savage types could have used it as a way to rehabilitate criminals.

Technically, "physiognomy" said your personality was shaped by the contours of your face, rather than your skull, but "The Physiognomizer" was a better name than "The Phrenologizer."

-The Gneech

gulon
The gulon is a devouring and unprofitable creature, having sharper teeth than other creatures ... It has the face of a cat and the body and tail of a fox. It is black of color; its feet and nails are most sharp; its skin is rusty, the hair very sharp. The gulon feeds upon carcasses. When he has found a carcass, he eats so violently that his belly stands out like a bell. Then he seeks some narrow passage between two trees and there draws through his body, and by pressing it, he drives out the food he has eaten. And being so emptied, he returns ... and so continues eating and emptying till all be eaten ... This beast was not known to the ancients, but hath been since discovered in the northern parts of the world.
      --Edward Topsell's History of Four-Footed Beasts, 1607

Hmm. You'd think people would notice a thing like that running around the northern climes! I like the description "devouring and unprofitable creature." Sounds sorta like America Online.

-The Gneech