WORDS AND PHRASES THAT ONCE MEANT SOMETHING

New Zealand Listener, Volume 10, Issue 255, 12 May 1944, Page 16

WORDS AND PHRASES THAT ONCE MEANT SOMETHING

words and phrases in common use in Anglo-Saxon and Elizabethan times, I have spent my recent spare time compiling a glossary of words and phrases in common use in my childhood but now either dead or dying, or at any rate so greatly changed in meaning as to be nearly unrecognisable. The. list appended here is but a beginning; I am well aware that within 2 few fleeting weeks I may have to change some definitions given now after long research and deep reflection; here, however, are the bones of what may well prove to be a dictionary of giant stature within our own time. 4 and by the loss to our language of many of the more colourful

The following abbreviations have been used;:-a. adjective; abb. abbreviation; pron. pronounced; n. noun; q.v. which see; v. verb; (I fave purposely avoided the use of the letters v.i. and v.t., as I find them confusing). BiSCuUITS-iittle cakes, twice cooked. With the Auckland gas shortage it has been possible to make only those kinds of cakes that require just the one cooking, so no one in Auckland has seen a b. in a shop for a very long time. They are, however, delicious when properly cooked, I am told. (CHOCOLATE, Chocolates, Chocolate Biscuits (q.v.) etc-produce of the cacao-seed used until about the end of the last decade as sweets. The

material is dark brown in colour, the word being now chiefly used in literature in the original sense and in everyday life to describe a particular tone: e.g. "C-brown costume 16 gns." E:GGS-These are deposited by the females of various species of fish, reptiles and birds, as well as by the queer Australian amphibious -mammal known as platypus, In most cases, it is then the duty of the female (occasionally the male has been known to help) to keep the ee, warm till the young are hatched from them. Some types of ee. are known to be edible, though rarely seen in civilised communities (this is probably because of the shy breeding

habits of most of the fish, reptiles and birds concerned). Colloq: A good e.-a good fellow. A bad e.-a criminal. Also occurring in the phrase, in literary and imaginative works, ee. and bacon, or bacon and ee. ;:LASTIC-2., used negatively, to describe regulations in Navy, Army and Air Force and scope of meatrationing coupons. Source: was originally a noun, the name of a substance (reputedly discovered or invented by Sir Stamford Raffles) with the appearance of white or black tape but with the following pecularity: IT WAS LONGER THAN IT SEEMED. For instance:-You could take a piece the length of the table; tack one end firmly to one edge of the table, walk round the (continued on next page)

(continued from previous page) table and firmly grasp the other end of the e. between thumb and forefinger, back gently away from the table, still holding the e. between thumb and forefinger. You would find to your astonishment that the e. stretched and followed you! Nowadays, the safety-pin has largely supplanted it. F ULLY-FASHIONED pure silk stock-ings-Some contend that this was a notice frequently displayed in drapery shops in years gone by. Others say that it is, like House-to-let-apply-within (q.v.) a fragment of one of the Old English singing-games favoured by 19th century children. There is, however, some foundation for the belief that this notice once did signify that the shop in question had for sale women’s hose (not to be confused with garden hose), or

atockings made from pure silk (a _ tex-| tile now used exclusively in the manufacture of parae¢hutes) and so shaped that they would fit the leg of the wearer, even round the ankle. In the course of my researches into the subject I was told

also that some women, at the beginning of the current war, experimented with moderate success in preserving /f.f.p.s.ss. using ordinary preserving jars with screw-top lids; but that they had to desist when they could no longer buy preserving rings made of rubber (q.v.) to ensure that the jar was airtight. GUM-BOOTS-Boots made from the ‘gummy or resinous secretion of trees, but not eucalypts. By clever treatment the material loses its sticky pro-perties-except when it comes in contact with mud-and thus the boots may be worn without fear of loss by suction or adhesion on various surfaces with the exception above noted. To-day they are mainly in use in cow-yards. UM (chewing)-Substance of puttylike consistency with its flavour as its only elusive quality. Remains malleable if persistently chewed; but rapidly hardens if deposited. Has been used to mend extemporaneous hole in kettle and (by George Raft, see G.M.’s review of Background to’ Danger in recent issue) to affix secret and dangerous maps to under-surface of table in emergency. H ONEY-Term of endearment used by U.S. servicemen and _ others; most common synonym is sweetiepie; abb. is Hon., pron. as in pre-Nazi name for German. Source: viscous sweet juice filling the elaborate structure built by colony of bees, notoriously busy creatures, for obscure purpose. Was prob. at one time available for human consumption, c.f. old nursery rhyme:"The King was in his counting house counting out his money, The Queen was in the parlour eatin bread-and-honey." H OT-WATER-BOTTLE-Bottle made of thick glass or earthenware with secure stopper commonly used in cold latitudes as bed warming-pan. It is filled with hot, not boiling, water, wrapped tarefully in several woollen garments (continued on next page)

(continued trom previous page) and placed in the bed, the bundle retaining a slightly humid warmth for 20 to 25 minutes. A variant of the device was for a time made of rubber (q.v.). H OUSE-TO-LET-APPLY-WITHIN-Apparently the first line of an old nursery rhyme (or perhaps OE game played by rustic children); I have been unable to discover any more of the rhyme or any further information. RANGE-name of a colour between red and yéllow most commonly seen in carrots and in tiles used for roofing. So-called from the colour of the o., a citrus fruit grown in California and Australia and formerly imported to New Zealand. RANGE MARMALADE-a breakfast jelly-like jam made from apple, pie melon or marrow base with possible addition of lemon or artificial citrus flavouring. Pale yellow in colour, occasional reddish streaks arising from the presence of grated carrot in judicious quantities. At one time o.m. was made largely from oranges (q.v.), hence name. , PEACHES AND -CREAM- Phrase much in use in romantic English novels to describe complexion of beautiful heroine (English, Scots, or Irish, but never colonial); suggesting: the colour of (1) peach,

a luxury fruit with a soft skin of delicate pink hue, selling at 8/- in England, and sometimes as low as 8d in New Zealand; (2) cream, thick liquid between the colour of milk and honey (qa.v.) which will

rise to the top of milk if the milk is left patiently for five or six hours after being extracted from the cow. Some townspeople have been known to believe that the co. is given by small cows (there being less of it than the milk) the milk by big cows. This is not so. All cows in a healthy condition give both milk and c., the two materials being well mixed in the liquid as it comes from the cow. A machine was invented a few decades ago to separate the c. from the milk at once; in recent times, nothing more is to be seen of the c. after this operation. RUBBER-A soft brush or cloth used by horse-trainers to rub down racehorses after racing or exercise. Penny r.-piece of soft, springy material about 1" x %" x 4%" used when I was at school for convenient erasure of wrong answers. Also (rare) R. Hot-water-bag or -bottle (q.v.) bed-warming device used in cold climates. Source prob. OE rubben (v.), to irritate or apply friction; c.f. "Ay there’s the rub." (Hamlet), and "Rub-a-dub-dub, three men in a tub." (Note: r. hot-water-bag was notorious as irritant of chilblains, so I expect the word follows regular derivation in this case.) PIRITS-variously high and low, according to weather, tote figures, etc. No simple syn. discoverable, except in illicit sense of whisky-brandy-frisky (kinds of drinks); but if you are in high s. you are in a good temper; if in

low s. in a bad temper.

J.