Funny, Interesting, Unusual English Words -- Like Sardoodledom

Drifting a little abut does anyone else here do cryptic crosswords? I usually (when they were going, I did complete an Araucaria a couple of times but I usually regard that standard as too hard for me and they take me ages if I get there at all) only do the easy ones in our local papers and I find them fun.

What I'm thinking of is the ways they can use words:

"The flower of London" could be the Thames (flower meaning something that flows and the River Thames being the main river in London).

"A redhead" might mean the letter "r".

Something "in a rush" might signify the answer starts with "r", ends with "d" and has two other letter "e"s in it, eg. "re----ed". Perhaps similarly, "a gin cocktail" probably means the answer ends "ing".

"A wicked light" could be a candle (which has a wick).

Okay, I see the word, flow, in flower, and the syllable, ing, in gin. I don't understand how the phrase, in a rush, suggests the letter, d, unless maybe, the phrase, in a rush, means dash.
 
ado


Genesis 33:11 He took it with much ado at his brother's earnest pressing him,


This is a vocabulary word that we study, but, with the exception of Shakespeare, this is the first time that I have seen it written.
 
gibbet

gibbet - apparatus for public execution.

Gibbet does not appear in the Protestant Bible. It must be a Catholic word. :)

Gensis 40:22 he hanged on a gibbet
 
provender -- animal fodder

Genesis 43 24 and he gave provender to their asses.

And I wonder if anyone still says ass when they mean burro, which sometimes is a tortilla with beans or is it beans with tortilla?

 
Okay, I see the word, flow, in flower, and the syllable, ing, in gin. I don't understand how the phrase, in a rush, suggests the letter, d, unless maybe, the phrase, in a rush, means dash.

A reed (plant) is a rush. So something with in a rush can start with the R and end with the D. The Es would have to be after the R or before the D.
 
Seeing as you were going biblical and think (OK at a bit of a tangent) of words, do you know of "Vanity Fair" or "The Slough of Despond"? Probably you do as I guess many of us will have read Pilgrims Progress . I don't read much but it and and Screwtape Letters are for me, the best (outside the bible) Christian works I've read. In both cases, I feel the authors must have had some great insight.
 
Seeing as you were going biblical and think (OK at a bit of a tangent) of words, do you know of "Vanity Fair" or "The Slough of Despond"? Probably you do as I guess many of us will have read Pilgrims Progress . I don't read much but it and and Screwtape Letters are for me, the best (outside the bible) Christian works I've read. In both cases, I feel the authors must have had some great insight.

I decided to read the Bible. Something that Mr Major said sparked me in that direction. So naturally I'm learning a few biblical words. I might have read Vanity Fair, but I might be confusing it with Moll Flanders, which seems like it could have been in Genesis. I never heard of Slough of Despond, but I have heard of Pilgrims Progress. And I did read the Screwtape Letters. The preacher in Seattle, Gramps's friend, gave me a list by CS Lewis. One was a defense of Christianity for Atheists, and the other was about a bus to nowhere. I don't remember the titles.

I had not thought about books that promote Christian ideas. Shakespeare is full of Bible allusions. My brothers had a math teacher. I likely will have him next year. He describes CS Lewis as "very profound;" and when he says it, his head shakes like the ideas are trying to escape.

It is sort of funny, cute ... Actually, he is really cute, dimples, curly hair ... etc. And he has children about my age. :)
 
Not a nice thing. Do you know btw what "Strange Fruit" is.

lynchng - trial and punishment by an informal group.

I had not heard about Stagne Fruit. I learned about lynching in a book. I think the title might have been Twentieth Century, but not the one by Howard Zinn. The book I had was a day to day account the the headlines in the twentieth century. I read a biography of Theodore Roosevelt. It had some informaton about how black witnesses would not testify again black suspects. That justified lynching. And because of the lychings, black witnesses were even more reluctant ot testify against black suspects. My impression is that the circus, anything-for-party atmosphere may have had more to do with it.
 
I decided to read the Bible. Something that Mr Major said sparked me in that direction. So naturally I'm learning a few biblical words. I might have read Vanity Fair, but I might be confusing it with Moll Flanders, which seems like it could have been in Genesis. I never heard of Slough of Despond, but I have heard of Pilgrims Progress. And I did read the Screwtape Letters. The preacher in Seattle, Gramps's friend, gave me a list by CS Lewis. One was a defense of Christianity for Atheists, and the other was about a bus to nowhere. I don't remember the titles.

I had not thought about books that promote Christian ideas. Shakespeare is full of Bible allusions. My brothers had a math teacher. I likely will have him next year. He describes CS Lewis as "very profound;" and when he says it, his head shakes like the ideas are trying to escape.

It is sort of funny, cute ... Actually, he is really cute, dimples, curly hair ... etc. And he has children about my age. :)

There is a book called Vanity Fair by William Makepiece Thackery but my understanding is that he picked the title from the place John Bunyan invented in Pilgrim's Progress.

My own (admittedly ignorant outside having read a the Screwtape Letters and bits of the Narnia series) feeling is that CS Lewis was a really deep Christian thinker. If I wasn't so lazy, Id try more of his works.
 
Anyway, bed beckons for today and I'm completetly and utterly discombobulated.

Will try again tomorrow with a fresher head.
 
As I understand the meaning of kangaroo court, it fits with lynching.

Here in the United States, Vanity Fair is a fashion or pop culture magazine. I had not heard of the connection between the novel and Pilgrims Progress. I read one of the Narnia stories in which a Lion's song creates the world. I don't remember the title. One thing about Jack's books, (Gramps refers to CS Lewis as Jack.) Jack's books are short.
 
There's a bit of a tangent to this one as in another thread, Ghid had, mentioned a Robeson song, Old Man River, that comes from Showboat. Not a work I know but I found the words were by Oscar Hammerstein. I sort of know a few bits from some of his other works with Rogers mostly but started to think for words in musicals. Not one of their works but...:

Not that I imagine anyone really uses it but here's

supercalifragilisticexpialidocious

 
Here in Orange County, we have a very artsy bunch. Rogers and Hammerstein are Saint Roger and Saint Oscar.
 
Here in Orange County, we have a very artsy bunch. Rogers and Hammerstein are Saint Roger and Saint Oscar.

I've just clicked on your name and see you show where you are. Disney World even. Too much would be too busy for me. I think if I ever visited California, I'd be most interested in seeing mt Shasta. But probably (more so as I age), I'm a country boy at heart.

I'll give you an English expression. It varies a bit but "From Hull and Halifax and hell good Lord deliver me" . I think it comes about in two ways. Hull and Halifax were places with public execution - to go back to an earlier post of yours, they had gibbets. But I think it can also refer to the grime and smoke of some cities in the industrial revolution.

I'll leave you with a song:

 
apropo - of an appropriate or pertinent nature.

The song is what you might call apropo because in school we are studying the industrial revolution. The artist must have a Welsch accent. I'll listen again. Right now I need to go run.

And, I live near Disneyland not Disney World. :)
 
apropo - of an appropriate or pertinent nature.

The song is what you might call apropo because in school we are studying the industrial revolution. The artist must have a Welsch accent. I'll listen again. Right now I need to go run.

And, I live near Disneyland not Disney World. :)

Sorry for not knowing the Disney differences!

The Artist (Christy Moore) has a Southern Irish accent. I believe he is from county Kildare.
 
Just to come back to the song. Ireland is a bit awaw from Yorkshire, England and original poem that song is based on is in Yorkshire dialect and credited to FW Moorman. Here's a dialect version for you:

From Hull, Halifax, and Hell, good Lord deliver us. A Yorkshire Proverb.

It's hard when fowks can't find their wark
Wheer they've bin bred an' born;
When I were young I awlus thowt
I'd bide 'mong t' roots an' corn.
But I've bin forced to work i' towns,
So here's my litany:
Frae Hull, an' Halifax, an' Hell,
Gooid Lord, deliver me!


When I were courtin' Mary Ann,
T' owd squire, he says one day:
"I've got no bield for wedded fowks;
Choose, wilt ta wed or stay?"
I couldn't gie up t' lass I loved,
To t' town we had to flee:
Frae Hull, an' Halifax, an' Hell,
Gooid Lord, deliver me!

I've wrowt i' Leeds an' Huthersfel',
An' addled honest brass;
I' Bradforth, Keighley, Rotherham,
I've kept my barns an' lass.
I've travelled all three Ridin's round,
And once I went to sea:
Frae forges, mills, an' coalin' boats,
Gooid Lord, deliver me!


I've walked at neet through Sheffield loans,
'T were same as bein' i' Hell:
Furnaces thrast out tongues o' fire,
An' roared like t' wind on t' fell.
I've sammed up coals i' Barnsley pits,
Wi' muck up to my knee:
Frae Sheffield, Barnsley, Rotherham,
Gooid Lord, deliver me!

I've seen grey fog creep ower Leeds Brig
As thick as bastile soup;
I've lived wheer fowks were stowed away
Like rabbits in a coop.
I've watched snow float down Bradforth Beck
As black as ebiny:
Frae Hunslet, Holbeck, Wibsey Slack,
Gooid Lord, deliver me!

But now, when all wer childer's fligged,
To t' coontry we've coom back.
There's fotty mile o' heathery moor
Twix' us an' t' coal-pit slack.
And when I sit ower t' fire at neet,
I laugh an' shout wi' glee:
Frae Bradforth, Leeds, an Huthersfel',
Frae Hull, an' Halifax, an' Hell,
T' gooid Lord's delivered me!
 
Here in Anaheim, people call Disneyland "The Mouse." Lots of people who live here have worked there. My mother, teachers at school, as Robeson might say, "Working for the Mouse all night and day" :)

I’m definitely going to get some brownie points when show Moorson’s song to my history teacher because Moorson’s song could be about the Industrial Revolution.

At first the narrator lived on a farm, just like at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution

“When I were young I awlus thowt
I'd bide 'mong t' roots an' corn.
But I've bin forced to work i' towns,”

The narrator had to “flee” the farm. Again, very much like in the Industrial Revolution.

“I couldn't gie up t' lass I loved,
To t' town we had to flee:”

The narrator went to different cities, and he worked as a sailor. He worked in forges, mills and collieries, or he managed to avoid them. I don’t know which.

“I' Bradforth, Keighley, Rotherham,
I've kept my barns an' lass.
I've travelled all three Ridin's round,
And once I went to sea:
Frae forges, mills, an' coalin' boats,”

The narrator’s work in Barnsley sounds dangerous, but I suspect that if he were able to stay on the farm, it would have also been dangerous.

“Furnaces thrast out tongues o' fire,
An' roared like t' wind on t' fell.
I've sammed up coals i' Barnsley pits,
Wi' muck up to my knee:”

Wikipedia has an article about a Frederic William Moorman, (1872–1918) Professor of English Language at the University of Leeds from 1912 to 1918. Could he be the song’s author?

I had expected to never find the word, Gibbet, again, but Halifax gained fame for its Gibbet in the seventeenth century. American history books normally call that the Renaissance.

A Google Book, A Yorkshire Miscellany, has some information about the original alliteration of Hell, Hull and Halifax (note the different order) by John Taylor, a seventeenth century poet.

The link connects to the page after the beginning of the information. I think that Taylor wrote his poem about the Gibbet. Moorson must have written his poem about life in general
 
Back
Top