Does This Make You Gry?

Do you remember an email about words ending in gry?

Origin

Don't waste your time looking for the mythical 'third word ending in GRY'. Just read the explanation below and relax - you can stop searching. The story goes like this:

A riddle of this form is circulating widely on the Internet:

"There are three words in English that end in GRY, hungry and angry are two, what is the third?"

Much effort has gone into finding the word and various pseudo-medical or otherwise obscure words that purport to fit the bill have been put forward. The confusion comes from the fact that the version of the riddle in circulation isn't the original and misses a vital part of the wording. In its original form the riddle went like this:

"Think of words that end in GRY. Angry and hungry are two of them. There are only three words in the English language. What is the third word? The word is something that everyone uses every day. If you have listened carefully, I have already told you what it is."

You will have realized by now that it's all a linguistic trick and the third word in 'the English language' is of course 'language'.

Just for completeness we ought to add that there are several other words that end in 'gry', not least 'gry' itself, although that does spoil the puzzle rather:

Gry (noun) - The smallest unit in Locke's proposed decimal system of linear measurement, being the tenth of a line, the hundredth of an inch, and the thousandth of a (‘philosophical’) foot.

For example, from 1679 John Locke's Letters to Boyle, 1679:

"The longest ... was three inches and nine grys long, and one inch seven lines in girt."

Gry (verb) - To rage or roar.

For example, from Richard Crew's Tasso's Godfrey of Bulloigne, 1594:

"The hearing this doth force the Tyrant gry, With threatfull sound."

So, now you can give up the search and move on to more useful pastimes.

The Edinburgh Fringe

From BBC Scotland -

23 August 2010 Last updated at 03:40 ET


Comedian Tim Vine has won a prize for the funniest joke of this year's Edinburgh Fringe.

The pun pundit, who won the Perrier newcomer award in 1995, was presented with his latest prize by digital TV channel Dave.

His winning one-liner was: "I've just been on a once-in-a-lifetime holiday. I'll tell you what, never again."

Some of the other winners were:

Gary Delaney "As a kid I was made to walk the plank. We couldn't afford a dog."

Gary Delaney "Dave drowned. So at the funeral we got him a wreath in the shape of a lifebelt. Well, it's what he would have wanted."



Judges also selected some of the worst jokes of this year's Fringe, which included:

Sara Pascoe "Why did the chicken commit suicide? To get to the other side."

Emo Phillips "I like to play chess with bald men in the park although it's hard to find 32 of them."

Dan Antopolski "How many Spaniards does it take to change a lightbulb? Juan."



The article also included readers comments, such as:

Did you hear about the corduroy pillows? They're making headlines. Erik, Lancaster, California, USA

Did you hear the one about the magic tractor? It was driving along a road and then turned into a field. Adam Williams, Willingham, UK

The only good thing about being the only boy out of six children, was I got to have a bedroom to myself; even my Mum and Dad had to share. Gary Hughes, Portsmouth, England, UK

I miss my ex-wife.... but my aim is getting better. Steve Holton, Austin, TX USA

I recently read a book titled '1000 places to visit before you die'. Although I couldn't help thinking: 'As opposed to when?' S Porter, Merseyside, UK

The ODE Adds

AOL News LONDON (Aug. 20)

Theunis Bates

-- Ever defriended a hater or chillaxed with a vuvuzela? No? Well, apparently a lot of other people have, because along with 2,000 other terms, those ungainly words have just been granted a place in the latest edition of the Oxford Dictionary of English.

Unlike the more prestigious multivolume Oxford English Dictionary -- which, as AOL News reported last month, is exceptionally picky about the words it lets in -- the single-book Oxford Dictionary of English (ODE) is based on how the English language is used in everyday life. Logophiles at the Oxford University Press decide on the new entries for the ODE by perusing an online database of over 2 billion words, harvested from magazines, novels, Internet chat rooms and a stack of other sources.

One of the biggest feeders of our ever-hungry language has been the economic crisis. Words once only used by pinstriped Wall Street types like "deleveraging" (the process or practice of reducing the level of one's debt by rapidly selling one's assets) and "quantitative easing" (the introduction of new money into the money supply by the central bank) are now common parlance. Others -- like "staycation" (a holiday spent in one's home country) -- sum up the sacrifices ordinary folk have to make in these cash-short times.

The ongoing ascent of social media, itself a new term, has also churned up some curious turns of phrase. You can now legitimately drop "defriend" (remove someone from a list of friends or contacts on a social-networking site) into a conversation, or arrange a "tweetup" (a meeting organized by means of posts on Twitter). But just because they're in the dictionary, don't expect anyone over 30 to know what you're yakking about.

Some new terms, though, seem destined to fade away just as quickly as they appeared. Has the word "bromance" (a close but nonsexual relationship between two men) ever been used outside of a Paul Rudd movie review? And as for "wardrobe malfunction" (an instance of a person accidentally exposing an intimate part of his or her body as a result of an article of clothing slipping out of position), surely that died along with Janet Jackson's career at the 2004 Super Bowl?

Here's a selection of new entries, several of which demonstrate how long it has taken for some well-established Americanisms to take root -- however tenuously -- across the Atlantic:

automagically -- automatically and in a way that seems ingenious, inexplicable or magical

bargainous -- costing less than is usual or than might be expected; cheap or relatively cheap

bromance -- a close but nonsexual relationship between two men

buzzkill -- a person or thing that has a depressing or dispiriting effect

carbon capture and storage -- the process of trapping and storing carbon dioxide produced by burning fossil fuels

catastrophizing -- view or present a situation as considerably worse than it actually is

cheeseball -- lacking taste, style or originality

chillax -- calm down and relax

chill pill -- a notional pill taken to make someone calm down

cool hunter -- a person whose job it is to make observations or predictions about new styles and trends

defriend -- another term for "unfriend" (remove someone from a list of friends or contacts on a social-networking site)

deleveraging -- the process or practice of reducing the level of one's debt by rapidly selling one's assets

dictionary attack -- an attempt to gain illicit access to a computer system by using a very large set of words to generate potential passwords

exit strategy -- a preplanned means of extricating oneself from a situation

freemium -- a business model, especially on the Internet, whereby basic services are provided free while more advanced features must be paid for

frenemy -- a person with whom one is friendly despite a fundamental dislike or rivalry

fussbudget -- a fussy person

geoengineering -- manipulation of environmental processes in an attempt to counteract the effects of global warming

hater -- negative person

hikikomori -- the abnormal avoidance of social contact, typically by adolescent males (in Japan)

Interweb -- the Internet

LBD -- little black dress

matchy-matchy -- excessively color-coordinated

microblogging -- the posting of very short entries on a blog

national treasure -- someone/thing regarded as emblematic of a nation's cultural heritage

netbook -- small light laptop

overleveraged -- having taken on too much debt

overthink -- think about (something) too much or for too long

paywall -- an arrangement whereby access is restricted to users who have paid to subscribe to a website

quantitative easing -- the introduction of new money into the money supply by a central bank

social media -- websites and applications used for social networking

soft skills -- personal attributes that enable someone to interact effectively and harmoniously with other people

staycation -- holiday spent in one's home country

steampunk -- a genre of science fiction that typically features steam-powered machinery rather than advanced technology

toxic debt -- debt that has a high risk of default

turducken -- a roast dish consisting of a chicken inside a duck inside a turkey

tweetup -- a meeting organized by means of posts on Twitter

vuvuzela -- long horn blown by fans at soccer matches

wardrobe malfunction -- an instance of a person accidentally exposing an intimate part of his or her body as a result of an article of clothing slipping out of position

Setting Something Straight

The other (early!) morning a question popped into my head. What word has the most different meanings? I set my mind to finding an answer.

I just had to look it up.

All set?

That word is...

set

verb, noun, adjective, interjection

–verb (used with object)

1. to put (something or someone) in a particular place: to set a vase on a table.
2. to place in a particular position or posture: Set the baby on his feet.
3. to place in some relation to something or someone: We set a supervisor over the new workers.
4. to put into some condition: to set a house on fire.
5. to put or apply: to set fire to a house.
6. to put in the proper position: to set a chair back on its feet.
7. to put in the proper or desired order or condition for use: to set a trap.
8. to distribute or arrange china, silver, etc., for use on (a table): to set the table for dinner.
9. to place (the hair, esp. when wet) on rollers, in clips, or the like, so that the hair will assume a particular style.
10. to put (a price or value) upon something: He set $7500 as the right amount for the car. The teacher sets a high value on neatness.
11. to fix the value of at a certain amount or rate; value: He set the car at $500. She sets neatness at a high value.
12. to post, station, or appoint for the purpose of performing some duty: to set spies on a person.
13. to determine or fix definitely: to set a time limit.
14. to resolve or decide upon: to set a wedding date.
15. to cause to pass into a given state or condition: to set one's mind at rest; to set a prisoner free.
16. to direct or settle resolutely or wishfully: to set one's mind to a task.
17. to present as a model; place before others as a standard: to set a good example.
18. to establish for others to follow: to set a fast pace.
19. to prescribe or assign, as a task.
20. to adjust (a mechanism) so as to control its performance.
21. to adjust the hands of (a clock or watch) according to a certain standard: I always set my watch by the clock in the library.
22. to adjust (a timer, alarm of a clock, etc.) so as to sound when desired: He set the alarm for seven o'clock.
23. to fix or mount (a gem or the like) in a frame or setting.
24. to ornament or stud with gems or the like: a bracelet set with pearls.
25. to cause to sit; seat: to set a child in a highchair.
26. to put (a hen) on eggs to hatch them.
27. to place (eggs) under a hen or in an incubator for hatching.
28. to place or plant firmly: to set a flagpole in concrete.
29. to put into a fixed, rigid, or settled state, as the face, muscles, etc.
30. to fix at a given point or calibration: to set the dial on an oven; to set a micrometer.
31. to tighten (often fol. by up): to set nuts well up.
32. to cause to take a particular direction: to set one's course to the south.
33. Surgery. to put (a broken or dislocated bone) back in position.
34. (of a hunting dog) to indicate the position of (game) by standing stiffly and pointing with the muzzle.
35. Music. a. to fit, as words to music.
b. to arrange for musical performance.
c. to arrange (music) for certain voices or instruments.
36. Theater. a. to arrange the scenery, properties, lights, etc., on (a stage) for an act or scene.
b. to prepare (a scene) for dramatic performance.
37. Nautical. to spread and secure (a sail) so as to catch the wind.
38. Printing. a. to arrange (type) in the order required for printing.
b. to put together types corresponding to (copy); compose in type: to set an article.
39. Baking. to put aside (a substance to which yeast has been added) in order that it may rise.
40. to change into curd: to set milk with rennet.
41. to cause (glue, mortar, or the like) to become fixed or hard.
42. to urge, goad, or encourage to attack: to set the hounds on a trespasser.
43. Bridge. to cause (the opposing partnership or their contract) to fall short: We set them two tricks at four spades. Only perfect defense could set four spades.
44. to affix or apply, as by stamping: The king set his seal to the decree.
45. to fix or engage (a fishhook) firmly into the jaws of a fish by pulling hard on the line once the fish has taken the bait.
46. to sharpen or put a keen edge on (a blade, knife, razor, etc.) by honing or grinding.
47. to fix the length, width, and shape of (yarn, fabric, etc.).
48. Carpentry. to sink (a nail head) with a nail set.
49. to bend or form to the proper shape, as a saw tooth or a spring.
50. to bend the teeth of (a saw) outward from the blade alternately on both sides in order to make a cut wider than the blade itself.

–verb (used without object)

51. to pass below the horizon; sink: The sun sets early in winter.
52. to decline; wane.
53. to assume a fixed or rigid state, as the countenance or the muscles.
54. (of the hair) to be placed temporarily on rollers, in clips, or the like, in order to assume a particular style: Long hair sets more easily than short hair.
55. to become firm, solid, or permanent, as mortar, glue, cement, or a dye, due to drying or physical or chemical change.
56. to sit on eggs to hatch them, as a hen.
57. to hang or fit, as clothes.
58. to begin to move; start (usually fol. by forth, out, off, etc.).
59. (of a flower's ovary) to develop into a fruit.
60. (of a hunting dog) to indicate the position of game.
61. to have a certain direction or course, as a wind, current, or the like.
62. Nautical. (of a sail) to be spread so as to catch the wind.
63. Printing. (of type) to occupy a certain width: This copy sets to forty picas.
64. Nonstandard. sit: Come in and set a spell.

–noun

65. the act or state of setting or the state of being set.
66. a collection of articles designed for use together: a set of china; a chess set.
67. a collection, each member of which is adapted for a special use in a particular operation: a set of golf clubs; a set of carving knives.
68. a number, group, or combination of things of similar nature, design, or function: a set of ideas.
69. a series of volumes by one author, about one subject, etc.
70. a number, company, or group of persons associated by common interests, occupations, conventions, or status: a set of murderous thieves; the smart set.
71. the fit, as of an article of clothing: the set of his coat.
72. fixed direction, bent, or inclination: The set of his mind was obvious.
73. bearing or carriage: the set of one's shoulders.
74. the assumption of a fixed, rigid, or hard state, as by mortar or glue.
75. the arrangement of the hair in a particular style: How much does the beauty parlor charge for a shampoo and set?
76. a plate for holding a tool or die.
77. an apparatus for receiving radio or television programs; receiver.
78. Philately. a group of stamps that form a complete series.
79. Tennis. a unit of a match, consisting of a group of not fewer than six games with a margin of at least two games between the winner and loser: He won the match in straight sets of 6–3, 6–4, 6–4.
80. a construction representing a place or scene in which the action takes place in a stage, motion-picture, or television production.
81. Machinery. a. the bending out of the points of alternate teeth of a saw in opposite directions.
b. a permanent deformation or displacement of an object or part.
c. a tool for giving a certain form to something, as a saw tooth.
82. a chisel having a wide blade for dividing bricks.
83. Horticulture. a young plant, or a slip, tuber, or the like, suitable for planting.
84. Dance. a. the number of couples required to execute a quadrille or the like.
b. a series of movements or figures that make up a quadrille or the like.
85. Music. a. a group of pieces played by a band, as in a night club, and followed by an intermission.
b. the period during which these pieces are played.
86. Bridge. a failure to take the number of tricks specified by one's contract: Our being vulnerable made the set even more costly.
87. Nautical. a. the direction of a wind, current, etc.
b. the form or arrangement of the sails, spars, etc., of a vessel.
c. suit (def. 12).
88. Psychology. a temporary state of an organism characterized by a readiness to respond to certain stimuli in a specific way.
89. Mining. a timber frame bracing or supporting the walls or roof of a shaft or stope.
90. Carpentry. nail set.
91. Mathematics. a collection of objects or elements classed together.
92. Printing. the width of a body of type.
93. sett (def. 3).

–adjective

94. fixed or prescribed beforehand: a set time; set rules.
95. specified; fixed: The hall holds a set number of people.
96. deliberately composed; customary: set phrases.
97. fixed; rigid: a set smile.
98. resolved or determined; habitually or stubbornly fixed: to be set in one's opinions.
99. completely prepared; ready: Is everyone set?

–interjection

100. (in calling the start of a race): Ready! Set! Go!

Source: dictionary.com

Some Writing On Writing

For your enjoyment and maybe as a stimulant to thought - some quotes on writing.


Everywhere I go I'm asked if I think the university stifles writers. My opinion is that they don't stifle enough of them.

Flannery O'Connor

***

Manuscript: something submitted in haste and returned at leisure.

Oliver Herford

***

People do not deserve good writing, they are so pleased with bad.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

***

Television has raised writing to a new low.


Samuel Goldwyn

***

Only a mediocre writer is always at his best.


W. Somerset Maugham

***

With sixty staring me in the face, I have developed inflammation of the sentence structure and definite hardening of the paragraphs.


James Thurber

***

The difference between the right word and almost the right word is the difference between lightning and the lightning bug.

Mark Twain

***

A good many young writers make the mistake of enclosing a stamped, self-addressed envelope, big enough for the manuscript to come back in. This is too much of a temptation to the editor.

Ring Lardner

***

It's a damn poor mind that can only think of one way to spell a word.

Andrew Jackson

***

A dramatist is a congenital eavesdropper with the instincts of a Peeping Tom.

Kenneth Tynan

***

A good novel tells us the truth about it's hero; but a bad novel tells us the truth about its author.

Gilbert K. Chesterton

***

Good authors, too, who once knew better words now only use four-letter words writing prose... anything goes.

Cole Porter

***

The only imaginative fiction being written today is income tax returns.

Herman Wouk

***

It's a damn good story. If you have any comments, write them on the back of a check.

Erle Stanley Gardner

***

And all writing is creating or spinning dreams for other people so they won't have to bother doing it themselves.

Beth Henley

***

The waste basket is the writer's best friend.

Isaac Bashevis Singer

***

When I was a little boy, they called me a liar, but now that I am grown up, they call me a writer.

Isaac Bashevis Singer

***

I've always believed in writing without a collaborator, because where two people are writing the same book, each believes he gets all the worry and only half the royalties.

Agatha Christie

***

The best time to plan a book is while you're doing the dishes.

Agatha Christie

***

The cure for mixed metaphors, I have always found, is for the patient to be obliged to draw a picture of the result.

-Bernard Levin

***

I love being a writer. What I can't stand is the paperwork.

Peter De Vries

***

Words are often seen hunting for an idea, but ideas are never seen hunting for words.

Josh Billings

Shot Down by The OED

Back on August 1 I posted about the "word" earworm and how I thought it should become a real, recognized and "dictionaried" word.

Imagine my shock when I read the following less than a week later!

Unused but Useful: Oxford English Dictionary's Reject List


Theunis Bates Contributor
AOL News

LONDON (Aug. 6) -- Ever engaged a freegan in nonversation, or does the very idea make you want to precuperate? If you haven't a clue what we're talking about, don't worry, you're probably not xenolexic.

The bizarre terms used in those last two sentences are "non words": Words that have allegedly been submitted to the Oxford English Dictionary -- the gatekeepers of the English language -- but rejected on the grounds that too few people currently use them. Some of these non words are hyper-local slang, while others briefly spring in and out of existence when they're deployed to describe short-lived phenomena. A freegan, for example, is an eco-campaigner who hunts for goodies in other people's trash; a nonversation is a vapid, pointless chat; to "precuperate" means to get ready for an oncoming illness; and, perhaps most appropriately of all, a xenolexic is someone who suffers intense confusion when faced with new words.

Recently graduated graphic designer Luke Ngakane, 22 -- who this summer made forgotten phrases the focus of his final art project at Kingston University, London -- told AOL News that many more failed words are hidden away in a secret vault at Oxford. According to British daily The Telegraph, this word bank houses 50 large filing cabinets, each crammed with thousands of 6-by-4-inch cards detailing every declined entry. Some of these slips were scribbled before 1918 -- the year "Lord of the Rings" author J.R.R. Tolkien was hired as an OED sub-editor. (He'd go on to spend many hours puzzling over the etymology of "walrus" and the definition of "waggle.") New non-words are now stored on computers.

After hearing about the vault from another artist, Ngakane decided he'd try to save some of the lost phrases. He contacted Oxford University Press, OED's publishers, and asked if he could roam around among the archives. They confirmed the vault's existence but ignored his plea for access. Unwilling to abandon the project, he trawled the Internet, looking for amateur lexicographers who say their dictionary contenders had been denied by OED authorities.

Through his own research and logophile contacts, Ngakane quickly built up a pamphlet's worth of non words. He selected 39 that "had a lovely flow, or perfectly fit the thing they're describing, like polkadodge, which is the dance that happens when two people attempt to pass each other but end up moving in the same direction," and compiled them in a "Dictionary of Lost Words." Some 150 copies of this alternative dictionary were printed on an old-fashioned letterpress and handed out to writers, journalists and "others who could help get as many of these unique words back into circulation."

If he could put one word back into popular parlance, Ngakane says he'd pick furgle. "It means fumbling in your pocket or bag for keys or a coin that you can't quite get hold of, " he explains. "That's furgling."

Here's the complete collection of non words. Who knows, if you slip them into enough conversations, maybe one day they'll make it into the OED.

Accordionated: Being able to drive and refold a road map at the same time

Asphinxiation: Being sick to death of unanswerable puzzles or riddles

Blogish: A variety of English that uses a large number of initialisms, frequently used on blogs

Dringle: The watermark left on wood caused by a glass of liquid.

Dunandunate: The overuse of a word or phrase that has recently been added to your own vocabulary

Earworm: A catchy tune that frequently gets stuck in your head

Espacular: Something especially spectacular

Freegan: Someone who rejects consumerism, usually by eating discarded food

Fumb: Your large toe

Furgle: To feel in a pocket or bag for a small object such as a coin or key

Glocalization: Running a business according to both local and global considerations

Griefer: Someone who spends their online time harassing others

Headset jockey: A telephone call center worker

Lexpionage: The sleuthing of words and phrases

Locavor: A person who tries to eat only locally grown or produced food

Museum head: Feeling mentally exhausted and no longer able to take in information; usually following a trip to a museum

Nonversation: A worthless conversation, wherein nothing is explained or otherwise elaborated upon

Nudenda: An unhidden agenda

Onionate: To overwhelm with post-dining breath

Optotoxical: A look that could kill, normally from a parent or spouse

Parrotise: A haven for exotic birds especially green ones

Peppier: A waiter whose sole job is to offer diners ground pepper, usually from a large pepper mill

Precuperate: To prepare for the possibility of being ill

Pharming: The practice of creating a dummy website for phishing data

Polkadodge: The dance that occurs when two people attempt to pass each other but move in the same direction

Pregreening: To creep forward while waiting for a red traffic light to change

Quackmire: The muddy edges of a duck pond

Scrax: The waxy coating that is scratched off an instant lottery ticket

Smushables: Items that must be packed at the top of a bag to avoid being squashed

Spatulate: Removing cake mixture from the side of a bowl with a spatula

Sprog: To go faster than a jog but slower then a sprint

Sprummer: When summer and springtime can't decide which is to come first, usually hot one day then cold the next

Stealth-geek: Someone who hides their nerdy interests while maintaining a normal outward appearance

Vidiot: Someone who is inept at the act of programming video recording equipment

Whinese: A term for the language spoken by children on lengthy trips

Wibble: The trembling of the lower lip just shy of actually crying

Wurfing: The act of surfing the Internet while at work

Wikism: A piece of information that claims to be true but is wildly inaccurate

Xenolexica: A grave confusion when faced with unusual words

Three Words and Replying To A Comment

Here we have three words I hear and see misused quite often.


Peruse

People think it means:
To skim over or browse something.

Actually means:
Almost the opposite of that.

Peruse means "to read with thoroughness or care." If you peruse a book, you leave no page unturned. This makes sense when you consider the Middle English per use, meaning "to wear out or use up." Unfortunately, if you "consider the Middle English" very often when speaking, you're probably not exactly the life of the party.


Irregardless

People think it means:
Regardless.

Actually means:
Not a darned thing.

This is not a word. Now, we have no problem with making up words. That will be apparent with the addition I will make to this post. The problem with this one is "regardless" already means something isn't worth regard (that's why the "less" is there) so adding the "ir" to it means... it's worth regarding again? Who knows?


Bemused

People think it means:
Mildly amused.

Actually means:
Bewildered or confused.

If you were to say "I was bemused by your dead baby joke," you wouldn't be saying the joke was funny. You'd be saying that you completely failed to understand it. It's hard to blame people for getting this one wrong, the word just sounds like it means, "sort of amused."


#####

An added thought...


My recent post "A Word And An Expression" brought an interesting comment from reader Lorraina. She commented, "Just a thought...is there a word for what we hear when someone talks loudly on their cell whilst in a public place and whom we don't want to hear but can't help but hear without their consent?

I know it isn't eavesdropping because the conversation is not secretly listened to and is actually forced upon us.

There must be a better word than overheard.

Forceheard?"

I did not know of any such word either but I tried to find one. 7 emails to various sources brought no help - all the replies were similar to this -

"Thank you for writing to Merriam-Webster. There is no word to our knowledge for the phenomenon that you describe other than, perhaps, the verb' overhear,' which certainly applies to much more than cell phone conversations.

I'm sorry we couldn't be more helpful.

Sincerely,

Neil S. Serven
Associate Editor
Merriam-Webster, Inc.
http://www.m-w.com"


So Lorraina, and other readers, it looks like our language is in need of a new word! That got me to muddling about in my mind. I like "forceheard" but I still wanted to come up with something else. I know that Sotto voce, literally "under voice", means intentionally lowering one's voice for emphasis. And vox populi is a Latin phrase that literally means voice of the people, is a term often used in broadcasting for interviews with members of the "general public".

From that line of thought I came up with "vox obnoxioso" for obnoxious voice. Grosso voce, perhaps?

Any other thoughts are always welcome. After all, a word farm should, at least occasionally, grow a word or two. No?

A Word and An Expression

I find that, occasionally, a word will come up in conversation and start bugging me about its origin. What I find when I search for origins is often fascinating. Just the other day a word and an expression did that. Eavesdrop and fuddy-duddy.

Eavesdropping is the act of secretly listening to the private conversation of others without their consent, as defined by Black's Law Dictionary. This is commonly thought to be unethical and there is an old adage that eavesdroppers seldom hear anything good of themselves...eavesdroppers always try to listen to matters that concern them.

Ancient Anglo-Saxon law punished eavesdroppers, who skulked in the eavesdrip of another's home, with a fine; the eavesdrip was also sometimes called the eavesdrop. Eavesdrop also means a small low visibility hole near the entrance to a building (generally under the eaves) which would allow the occupants to listen in on the conversation of people awaiting admission to the house. Typically this would allow the occupant to be prepared for unfriendly visitors.

Early telephone systems shared party lines which would allow the sharing subscribers to listen to each others conversations. This was a common practice in rural America which resulted in many incidents and feuds.

Eavesdropping can also be done over telephone lines (wiretapping), email, instant messaging, and other methods of communication considered private (If a message is publicly broadcast, witnessing it does not count as eavesdropping.). VoIP communications software is also vulnerable to electronic eavesdropping by via malware infections such as Trojan.

Origin:

early 17th century: back-formation from eavesdropper (late Middle English) 'a person who listens from under the eaves', from the obsolete noun eavesdrop 'the ground on to which water drips from the eaves', probably from Old Norse upsardropi, from ups 'eaves' + dropi 'a drop'

That was interesting. But then I came across this snippet that I found fascinating -

Hampton Court Palace outside London was the palace of King Henry VIII of England. In the eaves of its Great Hall, small faces are carved into the oak beams which lean at an angle of 45 degrees to the ground. These are known as 'Eaves Droppers'. Henry was known to be a strong ruler and often put spies in crowds of people to listen in to conversations. He wanted his staff (who slept in the Great Hall between banquets and would lie on straw looking up at the eaves) to know that he or his people would be listening at all times.



Fuddy-duddy

Meaning

A stuffy or foolishly old-fashioned person.

Origin

If any term sounds old and English, it must be this one. As so often, intuition is found to be inadequate as fuddy-duddy appears to be of American origin, possibly via Scotland, nor is it especially old. The first record that I can find of it is from the Texas newspaper The Galveston Daily News, 1889:

"Look here; I'm Smith - Hamilton Smith. I'm a minister and I try to do about right ... I object to being represented as an old fuddy-duddy."

That usage - without any accompanying explanation - seems to suggest that the readership would have been expected to have been familiar with it. That is quite possible, there are several citations in American newspapers from the end of the 19th century that relate to a pair of fictional wags called Fuddy and Duddy. A string of their rather weak gags was printed in the Boston Evening Transcript. Here's an example from a November 1895 edition:

Fuddy: So Miss Dandervecken is going to marry an Englishman. A lord, I suppose?
Duddy: Well, no, not exactly: but I understand that he's often as drunk as a lord.

Whether or not the expression 'fuddy-duddy' was already known and the names were taken from it, or whether it was the other way round, we can't now tell. The coincidence in the dates of the arrival of the two characters and the phrase does suggest that there was a connection of some kind.

Duddy was a Scottish term meaning ragged - duds having been used to refer to rough tattered clothes since the 15th century. That usage continued for some centuries and is still heard occasionally, notably in the popular 19th century traditional song The Blackleg Miner:

He grabs his duds and down he goes
To hew the coal that lies below,
There's not a woman in this town-row
Will look at the blackleg miner.

Fud, or fuddy, was a Scots dialect term for buttocks. In 1833, the Scots poet James Ballantyne wrote The Wee Raggit Laddie:

Wee stuffy, stumpy, dumpie laddie,
Thou urchin elfin, bare an' duddy,
Thy plumpit kite an' cheek sae ruddy
Are fairly baggit,
Although the breekums on thy fuddy
Are e'en right raggit.

The full-on Scots dialect in that sentimental, Burns influenced rhyme is difficult to translate precisely. The gist of the meaning is:

Poor scruffy little lad, bare and ragged, your wet belly and red cheeks are swollen and the trousers on your buttocks are torn.

There is a British term - 'duddy fuddiel', which is also recorded from around the same date. William Dickinson's A glossary of words and phrases pertaining to the dialect of Cumberland, 1899, has:

"Duddy fuddiel, a ragged fellow."

There may be a link between 'duddy fuddiel' and 'fuddy-duddy' but, as they don't mean exactly the same thing, we can't be certain.

One thing we can be sure about; that the cartoon character Elmer Fudd inherited the name from the phrase. 'Fuddy-duddy' was in general circulation in the US well before the character was created in around 1940 and the expression accords with his old-fashioned and obsessive temperament.

In a rather sad sequel to the Boston Transcript's role in the coining of 'fuddy-duddy', Time magazine reported in 1939 that a survey commissioned by the paper found that, "the most frequent word used by advertisers to describe the paper was fuddy-duddy". The Transcript ceased trading soon afterwards.

Help! I've Got An Earworm!

Have you ever come across a song, or an advertising jingle, that invades your consciousness and just won't leave? I am sure we all have. But there is no word for that in English. The closest I cvould find in my searching was the German word ohrwurm.

According to the Urban Dictionary -

ohrwurm

A song that you can't get out of your head.

lit. German for "earwig"

"Someone just hummed the opening to 'Gilligan's Island' and now I got an an ohrwurm!"



There's no word for this in English, so here the Germans have the clear linguistic advantage (you can also "pre-pone" an event in German and officially "dis-invite" someone). Here's where German comes to the rescue, with Ohrwurm, literally "ear-worm." You can almost picture the cute little twit camping out in your ear, singing the inane ditty over and over, cheerfully evading your increasingly desperate attempts to silence him. He smirks arrogantly as your gaze falls upon an ice-pick...

I think we should start an official campaign to bring Ohrwurm into English. Shouldn't be too difficult. Just start telling your friends "Crap, that opening to 'Gilligan's Island' is such an earworm." When they ask you what an earworm is, tell them, and urge them to start using it in their normal conversation. Note to entrepreneurs: trademark the word "Earworm" while it's hot! While on the subject, German has a word for a song that is popular for matter of weeks and then drops into the memory hole. It's an Eintagsfliege (One-day-fly), named for the sort of flies that live only a few hours (English: Mayflies; Latin -- pricelessly -- Ephemeroptera). One-day-fly doesn't really work in English, so let's just call these songs...Ephemeroptera. OK, perhaps not.