Boscage or Boskage
1. A mass of growing trees or shrubs; a thicket, grove; woody undergrowth; sylvan scenery.
2. The pictorial representation of wooded landscape.
Unsurprisingly this is derived via the Middle English boskage and Old French boscage, from the late Latin boscāticum, wooded country, a thicket.
Boscage is an ancient word with the OED recording the first written usage as early as 1400.
Category Archives: words
Word: Aposematic
Aposematic
A zoological term applied to usually bright colouring or markings designed to warn or alarm, and thus to repel the attacks of predators.
According to the OED the first recorded use was as late as 1890 and the word is derived from the Greek ἀπό apo away + σ̑ημα sema sign.
Wasps are a fairly classic example of aposematic marking.
Word: Mandrel
Mandrel
1. A tapered or cylindrical axle or spindle which can be inserted into a hole in a piece of work to support it during machining.
2. A metal bar that serves as a core around which material (usually metal) may be cast, molded, forged, bent, or otherwise shaped.
3. The shaft and bearings on which a tool (as a circular saw) is mounted.
4. A miner’s pick.
According to the OED the word is usually believed to be an alteration of the French mandrin, which has the senses 1 & 2 above. However the French word has not been traced earlier than 1690 and is of obscure origin.
Unless one is a tool-maker or similar craftsman the most likely place most of us will encounter a mandrel is as the stick which a jeweller uses to size rings.
Word: Trailbaston
Trailbaston
Originally a class of violent evil-doers in the reign of Edward I, who, as brigands or hired ruffians, bludgeoned, maltreated, and robbed the king’s lieges, during his absence or absorption in foreign wars.
It was also applied to their system of violence, for the suppression of which special justices were instituted in 1304–5. And thence the term was applied to the ordinances issued against said brigands, and to the inquisitions, trials, courts, and justices appointed for their suppression.
So trailbaston was a special type of itinerant judicial commission first created during the reign of Edward I and used many times thereafter during the reigns of Edward II and Edward III, primarily to punish felonies and trespass at the king’s suit.
The declared intention of the trailbaston commissions was to combat increasing levels of violence and public disorder, but an added bonus for the crown was the revenues brought by forfeiture, which was the punishment for conspiracy.
The first trailbaston commissions date back to 1305, when Edward I directed several teams of justices to visit each English county and seek presentments for felonies and certain trespasses. This was extended in late 1305 and revamped and it’s scope widened considerably in 1307.
The term was in living use from 1304 to about 1390 and has survived only as an often misunderstood historical expression.
Trailbaston ultimately derives from the Old French traille, to trail + baston, a stick, club or cudgel; so literally “one who trails or carries a club or cudgel”.
Word: Cuntline
Cuntline
No it has nothing to do with female anatomy — at least not obviously!
It is a nautical term for the “valley” between the strands of a rope or cable.
It may also be the space between casks stowed side by side.
According to Wikipedia’s “Glossary of Nautical Terms”: Before serving a section of laid rope eg. to protect it from chafing, it may be “wormed” by laying yarns in the cuntlines, giving that section an even cylindrical shape.
Although the word is not listed in my edition of the OED, it did make an appearance on the OUP Blog back in 2012.
The suggestion is that the word was originally cantline or contline, but from the few references I’ve found there doesn’t seem to be a lot of evidence for this. And of course it is always possible that, to the male nautical mind, anything with a “crack” or “crease” is going to be associated with the female pudenda.
Strange Conversations
About 30 years ago, the guy I shared an office with commented about “the strange conversations you people have over the dinner table”. This was, as I recall, occasioned by my mentioning that the previous evening Noreen and I had been ruminating upon the origins, and reasons for, the names animals were given in medieval times. You know: Reynard the Fox, Tib the Cat, Broc the Badger, and so forth.
[Although it has to be said that Jim and I also had some curious conversations in the office; as you do when you are working in IT, you have a doctorate in Chemistry and your office-mate has a doctorate in medieval French, from a French university.]
And indeed Noreen and I do discuss some odd things over dinner. Last evening we wondered about the origin of the word kiosk.
Noreen suspected initially that it might be Arabic. I suggested possibly Hindi; and later wondered about Inuit.
And of course Noreen turns out to be right. Kiosk is indeed derived ultimately from the Persian. According to the OED:
From the French kiosque and Italian chiosco; after the Turkish kiūshk a pavilion; which is from the Persian kūskh, a palace or portico.
Secondarily to this the OED quotes as one of its sources (not the earliest, that’s 1625):
1 April 1717, Lady MW Montagu letter to Mrs Thistlethwayte: “In the public gardens there are public chiosks, where people go and drink their coffee, sherbet, etc.”
I remark on this because the only other time I have come across Thistlethwaite as a name was Prof. Frank Thistlethwaite, Vice-Chancellor of UEA when I was a graduate student there in the early 70s.
But it isn’t just us. A few weeks ago when we met up with our friend Katy (plus under-age hangers on) for lunch the conversation fell to wondering about the origin of hunkey-dorey, meaning OK, good or even excellent. None of us knew, or even wanted to hazard a guess.
But trawling the intertubes it turns out that there is no agreed origin of the expression. The earliest reference seems to be in the US Civil War period collection of songs George Christy’s Essence of Old Kentucky of 1862. Not that this tells us the origin or reason; just when it is first recorded.
Looking further Word Detective turns up another, but suspiciously spurious, possible origin:
Probably the most oft-heard story about “hunky-dory” holds that there was, in the 19th century, a street in Yokohama, Japan, called “Honcho-dori.” It is said that Honcho-dori was the Times Square of Yokohama, and thus a favourite hangout of US sailors on shore leave. So popular did this street become among sailors, it is said, that “Honcho-dori” entered naval slang as “hunky-dory,” a synonym for “Easy Street” or a state of well-being and comfort.
Now, there actually is a “Honcho-dori” in Yokohama. (In fact, there’s one in many Japanese cities, because “Honcho-dori” translates roughly as “Main Street”.) But there are two problems with this story. One is that there is no direct evidence of any connection between the first appearance of “hunky-dory” around 1866 and US sailors in Japan or naval slang in general.
Problem number two is that a connection with “Honcho-dori” is somewhat unnecessary. English already had the archaic American slang word “hunk,” meaning “safe”, from the Dutch word “honk”, meaning goal or home in a game. To achieve “hunk” or “hunky” in a child’s game was to make it “home” and win the game. So “hunky” already meant OK.
But where the dory or dorey came from is, it seems, anyone’s guess. But then maybe it’s just a rhyming duplication like okey-dokey.
Yeah, the strange conversations you people have over dinner!
Oddity of the Week: Victorian Slang
Just like every other age the Victorians had a wide variety of slang, much of which has not survived. For example:
Bang up to the Elephant
This phrase originated in London in 1882, and means “perfect, complete, unapproachable”.
Bags o’ Mystery
An 1850 term for sausages, “because no man but the maker knows what is in them”. The ‘bag’ refers to the skin in which the chopped meat is contained.
Mutton Shunter
This 1883 term for a policeman is so much better than “pig”.
Find more at 56 Victorian Slang Terms That We Should Definitely Bring Back.
Word: Zarf
Zarf
No, this isn’t the East London pronunciation of South, though it is close! A zarf is actually …
A holder, usually of ornamental metal, for a coffee cup without a handle to protect the cup and also the fingers of the drinker from the hot liquid.
The zarf was originally often made from metal — silver, gold, copper and brass being the most usual choices. However zarfs were also made of wood, ivory, bone, horn, or tortoiseshell.
In modern times they are the, usually cardboard, sleeves which coffee shops put round your paper cup of take out coffee — although coffee shop chains don’t usually call them zarfs, but cup-sleeves or something similar.
Oh and the word comes from the Arabic word zarf, meaning meaning a container or envelope.
Oddity of the Week: Yi qi
Scientific names can be wonderful for many reasons. [There is] a bird whose name has rhythm, a fish with a fascinating etymology, and a butterfly named for a pioneering (and amazing) woman in entomology. Today’s entry is Yi qi, a newly described dinosaur whose name is interesting in origin and sound, and also wonderfully and surprisingly short.
Actually, the dinosaur is pretty wonderful too. Yi qi was a feathered theropod dinosaur … about the size of a large pigeon. In addition to feathers, it has two really odd features: a bony rod extending from each wrist, and sheets of membranous soft tissue that are preserved near the arms [which seem to be] wing membranes …
… two things about Yi qi‘s name.
First: why “Yi qi” (pronounced “ee chee”)? Yi means “wing” and qi means “strange” in Mandarin … So Yi qi is the “strange winged” dinosaur …
Second: what’s up with just four letters? We’re used to scientific names being long … and difficult to spell or pronounce …
So is Yi qi the shortest scientific name? Well, for an animal no shorter name is possible, because according to the International Code for Zoological Nomenclature … genus and species names must have at least two letters each … As it turns out, though, the race for the shortest name is a tie***: the Great Evening Bat is Ia io, also just 4 letters (and the only scientific name I know without consonants). Yi qi and Ia io have a few things in common besides the succinctness of their names: both are from China, both are flying predators, and both fly on membranous stretched from their arms.
*** With honourable mention to the Australian sphecid wasp Aha ha, at 5 letters.
From Wonderful Scientific Names, Part 4: Yi qi
Word: Panacea
Panacea
A remedy, cure, or medicine reputed to heal all diseases; a catholicon or universal remedy.
From the Greek (via Latin) παν + ἀκἐομαι, everything + to heal or to cure.
The OED says the first recorded usage in English was in 1548.