Wonderful Words

If you follow the Mississippi Library Commission on social media you have probably noticed our word of the day hashtag (#wordoftheday). We usually post unique vocabulary words on Tuesday and Thursday mornings. To find these words we consult the LearningExpress Library as well as the Oxford English Dictionary (OED)* and coincide the word with a significant event that took place on that day. This could be an author's birthday, a Mississippian's birthday or an important event or holiday.

Here are some of our favorite words from the past year: 

To see all of our words check out our Pinterest board, Wonderful Words.  Also follow us on Facebook and Twitter.  

*If you would like to use the OED for you own reference just contact us for the username and password.

The Whole Kit and Caboodle

Every morning on Facebook, we post a quote from a Mississippian, usually an author. This morning, we quoted Beth Henley, the Pulitzer-winning playwright from Jackson:

There weren't all that many poem books you could get off a the traveling book mobil. Most books I got was about animals. Farm animals, jungle animals, arctic animals and such. Course they was informative, I learned some things; they's called: a gaggle of geese; a pride of lions; a warren a rabbits; a host a whales. That's my personal favorite one: a host a whales!

-Beth Henley, MS playwright of "The Miss Firecracker Contest"

After this, of course, we had to find more. (Aren't collective nouns fun?) For this, we turned to the Dictionary of Collective Nouns and Group Terms. Here are some of our favorites for you to enjoy:

• Array of Hedgehogs
• Bloat of Hippopotami
• Bouquet of Pheasants (They don't smell pleasant...)
• Cloud of Grasshoppers



A Splother of Rabble,
or a Rabble of Splother

• Crash of Rhinoceros
• Dreadful of Dragons 
• Gang of Elk (At our next neighborhood watch meeting, we're discussing the influx of elk gangs in the area.)
• Kindle of Elephants (Elephants--the reading animals!)
• Parcel of Penguins
• Pomp of Pekingese
• Scourge of Mosquitoes
• Troop of Bees
• Turn of Turtles
• Walk of Snails (Hmmm.... Still pondering this one.)
   
• Consternation of Mothers
• Horde of Young Readers
• Macaroni of Poetry Selections (I'm trying to figure out how to work this into conversation.)
• Posy of Literary Pieces
• Rabble of Readers
• Sect of Old Maids



A Parcel of Penguins

• Shush of Librarians
• Splother of Children
• Wedge of Standing People

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Group_of_Emperor_Penguins.jpg
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Schoolchildren_reading_1938.jpg

The Biography of the Bigwig

Johann Christoph Wagenseil
and his big wig

Yesterday morning a patron used our new chat service, Digsby, to ask us about the etymology of the term bigwig. (Want to use Digsby to ask us a question, too? Scroll up, choose a screen name, and type it into the message box.) According to my favorite dictionary, the Oxford English Dictionary (impossible to resist so many volumes of words!), a bigwig is

a person of high official standing; a noteworthy or important person.

The OED 's first recorded mention occurred in 1703 in English Spy. Notice how bigwig is hyphenated:

Be unto him ever ready to promote his wishes..against dun or don-nob or big-wig-so you may never want a bumper of bishop.

By the way, the OED says that in this case, a bumper is a glass of wine filled to the brim; a bishop is wine mixed with sugar and oranges or lemons. I needed to clarify that because I had a completely different image developing in my head. Fascinating, but not the origin of bigwig.

I hit pay dirt in Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. They say:

The term alludes to the large wigs that in the 17th and 18th centuries encumbered the head and shoulders of the aristocracy of England and France. They are still worn by the lord chancellor, judges and (until 2000) the speaker of the house of commons. Bishops continued to wear them in the house of lords until 1880.

So, if you've ever watched an British crime procedural or A Fish Called Wanda, you've got a pretty idea of the wigs being described. Large. Ludicrous. Ugly. Big. We here in the Reference Department do not recommend wearing these types of wigs. (Unless, of course, you have a part in an British crime procedural...)

Fast fact: Richard Adams named one of the rabbits in Watership Down Bigwig. He (naturally) had a fluffy mop of rabbit hair atop his head.

Big. (2009). In Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. Retrieved from http://www.credoreference.com/entry/brewerphrase/big
Bigwig. (2004). In Chambers Dictionary of Literary Characters. Retrieved from http://www.credoreference.com/entry/chamblc/bigwig

Bigwig, n.Third edition, September 2008; online version June 2012. http://oed.com/view/Entry/18902 accessed 13 August 2012. An entry for this word was first included in New English Dictionary, 1887.

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Johann_Christoph_Wagenseil.png
 

Abra-Abra-Cadabra! I Want to Reach Out and Grab Ya

I ran across a fascinating entry in a book called Literary Curiosities this morning. It details the incredible history of the word abracadabra, which, I'm ashamed to admit, I thought was soley the property of children's birthday party magicians. It's crying out to be shared:

Abracadabra, a cabalistic word used in incantations, and supposed to possess mystic powers of healing, especially when written in this triangular shape:

The paper on which this was written was to be folded so as to conceal the writing, stitched with white thread, and worn around the neck. It was a sovereign remedy for fever and ague. Possibly the virtue lay in the syllables Abra, which are twice repeated, and which are composed of the first letters of the Hebrew words signifying Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, --Ab, Ben, Rauch Acadosh. The earliest known occurrence of the word is in a poem of the second century, "Praeceta de Medicina," by Q. Serenus Sammonicus. It is now often used in the general sense of a spell, or pretended conjuring, jargon, or gibberish.

Unfortunately, the book doesn't mention how effective the abracadabra bandana actually is in combating flu and colds. Up next week? The fascinating history of hocus-pocus!

Walsh, William S. Handy Book of Literary Curiosities. Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott Company, 1966. Print.

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Abracadabra.gif

Harry Potter and the Overly Exuberant Librarian

I bought the tickets this morning. We're going to watch the last of Rowling's books take life on the silver screen. Both of us are literally counting down the hours; the back-and-forth texting comparing who is more excited has been going on since the crack of dawn. So, do you know what happens when a Harry Potter fan is a Reference Librarian? (Picture gleeful rubbing together of hands.)

• A Potter family of four--James, Lily, and tots Minerva and Loyd-- lived in Otero, Colorado in 1900.
• There were three James and Lily Potter households in the 1901 England Census:

  James and Lily Potter, 1900s style

  
  
  Little Hulton
  James Potter - coal miner
  Lily - wife
  John and Ethel - children
  
  Woodbury
  James Potter - general labourer
  Lily - wife
  Lily Lee, Joseph Lee, and Robert Lee - step-children
  Henrietta Potter - daughter
  
  Islington
  James Potter - printer
  Lily - wife
  Elizabeth - mother-in-law
  
  Now, why didn't any of them name a son Harry? That's just no fun!
• In 1830, there were only two Harry Potters living in the US. Incidentally, they both lived in New York State.
• By 1930, the number of Harry Potters in the US had increased to 229. One was even born in Mississippi in 1910.
• Although there is no Voldemort in any of the US Censuses, there were 23 Tom Riddles listed in the 1930 census.

Neville's wedding cake

• In May of 1994, a Mr. Neville Longbottom was married in Bristol. Congratulations, Neville!
• From 1928-1944, a Hermione Granger lived in Monterey County, California.
• There were six Lovegoods in the 1881 England Census. Sadly, none of them were named Luna or Xenophilius.
• There were 41 Weasleys in the 1920 US Census. It seems the American branch wasn't as prolific as the British.
• There were nine McGonagalls living in Scotland in 1871.

Dumbledore

• Dumbledore means a humble-bee or bumble-bee.
• Hagrid means exactly what it looks like... someone who is hag ridden, and thus, is oppressed in mind or harassed. "When she had not slept she did not quaintly tell the servants next morning that she had been ‘hagrid’." T. Hardy Mayor of Casterbridge
• Snape means to rebuke or snub, or to check, restrain, or curb.
• Mundungus is poor-quality, bad-smelling tobacco.

  Mundungus

  

That's what a Reference Librarian with Harry Potter on the brain gets up to. Only 3 1/2 more hours until magic time. I could use a Cheering Charm to get me through. Get out your wands, people!

http://www.ancestrylibrary.com/default.aspx
http://www.oed.com/
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bee_at_Wisley_Gardens.jpg
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:DunhillEarlyMorningPipeMurrays.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4c/StateLibQld_1_54740_Family_portrait%2C_1900-1910.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f4/Hochzeitstorte.jpg

The Plight of the Platypodes

I jokingly e-mailed this GIF to some of my friends and mentioned that I would like to receive a platypus for my birthday. (My birthday isn't for three months. I like to start throwing gift ideas out early.)

http://icanhascheezburger.com/2011/04/12/funny-pictures-gifs-platypus-prowl/

One of my friends, the big goof, wanted to know if it were actually possible to own a platypus. Well, I didn't know, but I do now!

Platypus are wild animals with specialised living requirements. It is illegal for members of the public to keep them in captivity. A platypus which has been accidently captured along a stream or found wandering in an unusual place should never be taken home and treated as a pet, even for a brief time. The animal will not survive the experience.
Only a small number of Australian zoos and universities hold permits to maintain platypus in captivity for legitimate display or research purposes. Current Australian government policy does not allow this species to be taken overseas for any reason. http://www.platypus.asn.au/distribution_and_status.html

My dream is dashed. Not only wouldn't they survive in captivity (I'm not sure how well they would adapt to my cats, either,) but they also have some disturbing habits.  Did you know:

• Every male platypus has a venemous spur on each of his back ankles. This venom is extremely painful to humans and also causes inflammation and swelling (Oxford Reference).
• The female does not have teats. Instead of suckling, the young lap up milk secreted by skin on the mother's stomach (Oxford Reference).

One more (slightly less) disturbing habit? No one can agree upon a correct plural form of platypus. For example, the Oxford English Dictionary lists four choices: platypuses, platypi, platypusses, and my favorite, platypodes. I don't think I could handle such an "indecisive" mammal. I suppose I'll stick with cats and dogs.

Tom R. Grant "Platypus" The Encyclopedia of Mammals. Ed. David W. Macdonald. Oxford University Press, 2007. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press. Mississippi Library Commission. 13 April 2011 http://www.oxfordreference.com/views/ENTRY.html?subview=Main&entry=t227.e111

The Importance Of Being A Dude

This blog post originally appeared 7/24/2008.

While perusing the pages of The New York Public Library Desk Reference, 3rd Edition, I looked at the bottom of the page containing common crossword puzzle words and saw the following fabulous fact:

The word dude was coined by Oscar Wilde and his friends. It is a combination of the words duds and attitude.

Oscar is the original dude. He had an immeasurable amount of style; this photo from 1882 captures him in his favorite coat. Talk about strutting his stuff! Tres chic!

Oscar was dude-a-rific not only for concocting new words, but also for his ready wit. Here are a few Wilde quotes to get you through the day:

The good ended happily and the bad unhappily. That is what fiction means.

A little sincerity is a dangerous thing, and a great deal of it is absolutely fatal.

I can resist everything except temptation.

A thing is not necessarily true because a man dies for it.

Appearance blinds, whereas words reveal.

Definitely not a dude who would ever misplace his car!

The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations. Ed. Elizabeth Knowles. Oxford University Press, 2004.
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Oscar_Wilde_3g07095u.jpg

Goodbye, Librarianship. Hello, Prestidigitatorship.

This blog post originally appeared 4/11/2008.

You know what it's time for, right? More tidbits from my Schott's Almanac Page-a-Day calendar!


Today's topic is Occupations of Note. "Librarian" seems so...obvious now. Here are some of the best ones:

Amanuensis: secretary
Bowyer: maker of archery bows
Colporteur*: door-to-door bookseller
Ecdysiast: striptease artist
Funambulist: tightrope walker
Ocularist**: false eye manufacturer
Prestidigitator: sleight of hand magician
Whitesmith: polisher of metalwork

*Interestingly, this guy was not one.

**Has anyone read Flannery O'Connor's short story "Good Country People"? I can't hear about a false eye or a prosthetic limb without immediately thinking of that story.

-Tracy

You Say Srimp, I Say Shrimp. (And Then I Go Research the Issue.)

I'm always interested in the various ways people pronounce words. We don't get a lot of to-MAY-to vs. to-MAH-to disputes around here (it's more like to-MAY-to vs. mater), but one word I have always been curious about is the alternate pronunciation of shrimp. Instead of the sh- sound at the beginning, I have noticed that some people pronounce it srimp. Who's correct? And why don't these folks also pronounce shrub as srub?

I turned to the trusty Oxford English Dictionary, and as usual, it explained it all. There's one official way to pronounce ye olde shrimp, and it's with the sh sound at the beginning. So why do I keep hearing about srimp étouffée?

Apparently I am not the only one for whom this question is a burning issue, but my company is small. I could find only one article that addresses the mighty shrimp vs. srimp debate, from a December 1941 issue of American Speech. In it, the author, George Reese, quickly points out that a variation is not incorrect, but rather, he endeavors to find out the source of it. Apparently swapping out the sh- for a s- is common in many areas of England and dates back to the 13th century. In the United States, it's usually confined to the South and creeps up the Atlantic seaboard. Virginians seem especially fond of their srimp cocktails.

While Reese makes the claim that it's not incorrect to use this variation, he does quote at length from an 1856 text, Punctuation and Improprieties of Speech, which goes beyond the polite term "incorrect." Allow me to quote at length as well, because I find it hilarious:

"Sometimes the words shrink, shriek, shrine, &c., are pronounced as if written srink, sriek, srine, the letter h being entirely suppressed. This is the affected pronunciation of over-refined school girls, who cannot bring themselves to utter the homely English sound of sh when combined with an r, for fear apparently of distorting their faces. The utterance of this combination of sounds certainly does require a projection of the lips beyond what is beautiful, but still all good authority requires that these and similar words should have the full sound of the sh as in show, shine" (253).

Am I the only one who finds this a laugh riot? I'm imagining a bunch of 19th century schoolgirls huddling together and making fun of the brave girl who dares to extend her lips beyond what is beautiful in order to shriek, "Which one of you shrews placed a shriveled shrimp on my shroud?"

Reese, George H. "Pronunciation of 'Shrimp,' 'Shrub,' and Similar Words. American Speech. Vol. 16, No. 4 (Dec. 1941), pp. 251-255.

Broadsided by Meebo

Today I received a question from a Meebo patron asking about the term "broadside" in relation to printing. After asking Tracy, who knows everything, by the way, I was able to located the term in Glaister's Glossary of the Book. The term "broadside" is defined as:

"A sheet of paper printed on one side only. Broadsides were used soon after the beginning of printing for royal proclamations and official notices. They were later a vehicle for political agitation and the expression of opposition to authoritarian rule. They were even used for the dissemination of scaffold speeches by criminals on the point of execution.

Early in the 16th century poems and ballads were printed in this form in England, and black letter fount continued to be used long after the introduction of roman for books.

Broadsides are also known as broadsheets, single sheets, street-or-still-ballads, and black-letter ballads. The term broadside is now applied to a variety of large regular and special-fold sheets, printed on one or both sides. A broadside may also contain one job or a number of jobs."

If I had to create a broadside for today it would read:

"Reference Librarian Reprimanded for Snarky Comment on Blog. Supervisor Mulls Termination!"

Glaister's Glossary of the Book: Terms used in Papermaking, Printing, Bookbinding, and Publishing with notes on Illuminated Manuscripts and Private Presses. Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press, 1979. p. 73

Rude, Crude, and Socially Unacceptable

Yesterday, I was asked to research the etymology of a particular four-letter word for a friend. The Reference Department actually has quite a few books dealing with this subject: Modern American Slang, The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang, The Slang of Sin, etc... It's always such fun to look at these that I usually end up spending entirely too much time flipping through the interesting entries. Here are a few from The 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue that tickled my funny bone:
Scandal Broth - Tea

Fice, or Foyce - A small windy escape backwards, more obvious to the nose than ears; frequently by old ladies charged on their lap-dogs.

Nicknackatory - A toy shop

Gutfoundered - Exceedingly hungry

Huckle my Buff - Beer, egg, and brandy, made hot

Nit Squeeger, i.e., Squeezer - A hair-dresser

Randle - A set of nonsensical verses, repeated in Ireland by schoolboys, and young people, who have been guilty of breaking the wind backwards before any of their companions; if they neglect this apology, they are liable to certain kicks, pinches, and fillips, which are accompanied with divers admonitory couplets.

Lawful Blanket - A wife

By the way, the subtitle of this outstanding book is A Dictionary of Buckish Slang, University Wit, and Pickpocket Eloquence. Doesn't that just make you want to swoon with delight?

What I Really Mean Is...

Some of the reference questions we receive here at the Library Commission ask for the definitions of words, the spelling of words, or the origin of words or phrases. Stroll through the shelves of our reference collection and you will find many different dictionaries. We have the typical works, such as the classic Oxford English Dictionary, as well as foreign language dictionaries and medical dictionaries. Look a little further, however, and you will find some really fun and unique titles like these:

· The Routledge Dictionary of Modern American Slang and Unconventional English
· An Encyclopedia of Swearing: the Social History of Oaths, Profanity, Foul Language, and Ethnic Slurs in the English-Speaking World
· The Endangered English Dictionary: Bodacious Words Your Dictionary Forgot
· When is a Pig a Hog?: a Guide to Confoundingly Related English Words

One of the sources I have recently stumbled upon is How Not to Say What you Mean: a Dictionary of Euphemisms, by R.W. Holder. Euphemisms, of course, are words or phrases that we use to make something that is really bad or taboo seem not so bad. For example, instead of telling your four-year-old niece that her pet goldfish died, you might say that it “went to sleep” or “went to a better place.” Many of the euphemisms in the book have to do with death, but other topics include religion, sex, bodily functions, mental illness, and crime-all topics that we might not be comfortable discussing.

Here are some of the words and phrases from Holder’s book that I thought were unusual (there were others I thought were unusual too, but these are the less vulgar ones!):

· Airport novel: a book written for a person who does not read regularly. For the captive traveler market and considered by the literati to be unworthy of their attention (7).
· The Aztec two-step: An affliction of visitors to Mexico—you have to keep dancing to the lavatory. Also known as Montezuma’s Revenge (16).
· Break your elbow: to give birth to a child outside marriage (42).
· Devoted to the table: gluttonous, not merely fond of a piece of furniture. Heavily overweight (103).
· File thirteen: a wastepaper basket. Where you dispose of unwanted or superfluous correspondence or printed matter (140).
· See a man about a dog: to go to any place that is the subject of taboo or embarrassment. The dog’s location depends on the company you keep—a lavatory, in mixed society; an inn, in the presence of your family at home; home, if you are with friends in an inn; and so on(351).
· Terminological inexactitude: a lie. The term was coined by Winston Churchill (404).
· With respect: you are wrong. Used in polite discussion and jargon of the courts where an advocate wishes to contradict a judge without prejudicing his case. There is high authority for the view that “with respect” means “you are wrong”…“with great respect” means “you are utterly wrong” and”with the utmost respect” equals “send the men in white coats” (442).

What are some of your favorite euphemisms, words, or phrases? Leave us a comment! We’d love to hear from you.

Have a wordy question? Ask us!

Reference:
Holder, R.W. How Not to Say What You Mean: a Dictionary of Euphemisms. New York: Oxford UP, 2002.

Salute Me! I Voted!

By now, many of you have already joined me by casting your vote. Countless blogs and newscasts have and will repeat the importance of an individual's vote, but it cannot be stated enough. Vote. The word vote comes from the Latin word vovere, which means to vow or to desire. The word suffrage means "a vote given by a member of a body, state, or society, in assent to a proposition or in favour of the election of a person." In essence, I support this, I desire this, I vow to uphold this. I vote for this.

• In 1787, the Constitution did not say who could or could not vote, so it was left to the states to decide. Most granted voting rights only to white men who owned land, in accordance to traditions handed down from England and that had already been used in the colonies prior to the Revolutionary War.
• The 15th Amendment gave black males the right to vote in 1870, but after Reconstruction, most lost their right to vote again. In 1965, the Voting Rights Act, along with other important events like Freedom Summer, helped to restore the rights granted by the 15th Amendment nearly 100 years before.
• The 19th Amendment, also known as the Susan B. Anthony Amendment, became law in 1920 and gave white women the right to vote.
• In 1922, the Supreme Court decided that Asian-Americans were granted no voting rights under the 14th and 15th Amendments. This decision remained in place until World War II.
• In 1924, the Indian Enfranchisement Act was passed. This granted all Native Americans full rights as citizens of the United States, and with these, the right to vote.

Knowing all of this, don't vote just because you have the right to do so. Vote because it burns within you and because you desire to make your voice heard. Vote.
Zelden, Charles L. Voting Rights on Trial. ABC Clio, 2002.
Oxford English Dictionary
Credo Reference