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A page-a-day Calendar of Vanishing Vocabulary and
Folklore
I think of the Forgotten English Calendar as an annual
review of misplaced expressions, customs, and cultural
oddities that are worth rediscovering. On each page of the
2010 edition you will find such discarded but once common
terms as:
· jollux, an overweight person
·
puss-gentleman, an effeminate man
·
doggerybaw, nonsense
·
mullycrushed, ruined beyond repair
·
spang one's gales, to make haste
·
fard, to paint the face with cosmetics
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gutterblood, a relative living in the same town
·
pigwidgeon, "anything petty or small," according to
Samuel Johnson
The definitions often
involve unusual etymologies and strange old meanings for
such words as spinster. These curious and
thought-provoking morsels of English, as well as the many
unusual offerings of date-related folklore, are carefully
gathered from more than 250 original source books.
Our British, American, Canadian, Australian, and European
ancestors once observed holidays and seasons quite
differently than we do now—from early July's Sweetening
Saturday, when a once-a-year bathing took place, and
Beanfest Day (the forerunner of the "company picnic"), to
Oatmeal Monday and the many weeks of Christmas "revels."
Some, such as the raucous 13th-century Haxey Hood Day in
Lincolnshire, are still observed, but alas, Yorkshire's
Dog-whipping Day, Lancashire's Mischief Night, and many
others found in this collection, have faded into the mists
of time.
Here you can read about early travel inconveniences,
ridiculous American liquor laws, forgotten weather
forecasting methods, and outmoded marriage customs. Also
included are hilarious anecdotes and thought-provoking
quotes from the likes of William Shakespeare, H. L. Mencken,
George Washington, and Lewis Carroll, along with vignettes
featuring the advent of the polka, Handel's Water Music,
time-trodden holiday folklore, and odd lunar customs.
Discover the origin of the sandwich, curious saints and
their patronages, the closing of the English theater by the
Puritans, the history of chocolate, and the 100th birthday
of gun moll Bonnie Parker. Most pages are adorned with
vintage line-drawings illustrating that day's entry.
Please contact the author (via the "Contact Me" button on
the Home page) if you are unable to find a copy.
Available from Pomegranate.
ISBN 978-0-7649-4707-0. |
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