Forgotten Holidays

A few will be aware I have been known to speak on various subjects over the years. Fundamentally these all revolve around my favourite subject of etymology. Have always enjoyed bringing this fascinating subject to others. It’s not for me to say whether the audiences have, although many have asked me to return.

Thought it might be worthwhile sharing a snippet or two from these etymological presentations, continuing with Forgotten Holidays. Once upon a time the Christian calendar dominated the celebrations. Not that everyone had a day off work but you'll be amazed at the many days we no longer celebrate and the reasons they were created in the first place.

Examples include Royal Oak Day – May 29th - This is the date of birth of Charles II and chosen as a holiday to commemorate the Restoration of the Monarchy in 1660. Its name refers to the events of 1649, when Charles II escaped from the site of his defeat at the Battle of Worcester. He fled to Boscobel House at Shifnal in Shropshire where, aided by the Peverell brothers, he and his aide Colonel Carless hid in the branches of a huge oak tree – the famed Boscobel Oak – until the Parliamentarians had gone. This was the start of an arduous and circuitous six-month long trek around England disguised as a woodsman – his hair cut short and skin stained to appear as if he was used to working out of doors – until escaping to the Continent. This is the reason for the many public houses named the Royal Oak – indeed this is the second most common name in the country. Ten years later, at the restoration, he returned in triumph and thereafter the date of May 29th was Oak Apple Day and a national holiday until 1859. Those who would like to see this day reinstated may like to think again, especially if they are still at school. On this day children would be expected to adorn themselves with garlands of oak leaves. Not to do so was seen as being anti-Royalist (back to Cromwell again!) and these children would be thrashed by their peers, thrashed using bunches of nettles and/or pelted with birds eggs. Hence the alternative name of Oak and Nettle Day. Other names include Arbour Tree Day and Shick Shack Day or, in Sussex where the locals use any excuse to grope the neighbours, Pinch-bum Day and in Essex Bumping Day. Other celebrations are still staged annually, most of which use flowers to spruce things up a bit: Castleton, Derbyshire has the Garland King riding through the streets disguised by a huge garland of flowers later hung high on the church spire; other celebrations held at Upton-upon-Severn (Shropshire); Aston on Clun (Shropshire); Marsh Gibbon (Buckinghamshire); Great Wishford (Wiltshire); Membury (Devon); and Moseley Old Hall (West Midlands); Fownhope (Herefordshire); Northampton (Northamptonshire); Oxford (Oxfordshire); Cambridge (Cambridgeshire); St Neot (Cornwall) where the vicar leads a procession through the village to remove last year’s oak branch from the church tower and replaced by a new, this the job of the Tower Captain, and everyone heads off to the vicarage gardens for a barbecue – in the morning villagers wear a sprig of red oak and in the afternoon a sprig of Boys Love (Artemisia arbotanum).

February 29th - Celebrated every four years because this is Leap Year Day. Those born on this date generally celebrate their birth on February 28th slightly more often than March 1st, although the split is close to 50/50. However legally those in the UK have March 1st, whilst New Zealanders and Taiwanese can move it forward to February 28th. The only thing I knew about February 29th was it was when women can propose marriage to men, although I was not aware that a refusal means he is obliged to give her money or buy her a dress (but I shall never tell). In Europe the noble males, having spurned her advances, must purchase 12 pairs of gloves for her and thus hide the fact she isn’t wearing an engagement ring. In Aurora, Illinois single women are deputized for the day and allowed to arrest single men and levy a four-dollar fine. Oddly Greeks consider marriage on February 29th to be very unlucky (as unlucky as every other day some would think).

If you think you know someone who would like to hear me speak on this subject, drop me a line.

Street names

A few will be aware I have been known to speak on various subjects over the years. Fundamentally these all revolve around my favourite subject of etymology. Have always enjoyed bringing this fascinating subject to others. It’s not for me to say whether the audiences have, although many have asked me to return.

Thought it might be worthwhile sharing a snippet or two from these etymological presentations, continuing with Street Names. Defining street names is increasingly seen as a tool to understanding more recent history. Earlier names show what these places were used for before the Industrial Revolution. When the population of our towns and cities veritably exploded as entrepreneurs built vast estates to accommodate their workforce, they also left many clues as to their friends and families in the names they chose for these newly built streets. Find out why they chose these names in a revealing hour. There is a PowerPoint presentation to accompany this talk if required.

Now obviously street names are chosen to be unique within a village, town, or city and thus for the most interesting examples we need to give the place. However, there are a number which are common to many places and we will look at a few examples of those.

Those found most places include: High Street – is used in the sense ‘important’ rather than elevation; Main Street – is easier to see as ‘important’; Pinfold Street – was where loose animals were held until their owner turned up and paid the requisite fine. This also paid for the Pinner’s wage; Glebe Lane – is land used solely to raise money for the church and always stands alongside same; and such as Station Street, Church Street, School Lane I won’t insult your intelligence with.

There are also those which of which we have all heard: Downing Street – was named after George Downing who, in the 17th century, owned both the street and the houses. For one of the most famous streets in the world, it bears the name of a man known only for being a most unpleasant individual, indeed the famous diarist Samuel Pepys described him as a ‘perfidious rogue’; Lime Street – most famously also the name of the Liverpool station named after the street, itself named at its creation in 1790 for the lime kilns owned by local businessman William Harvey.

At that time Lime Street was outside the city limits but, by 1804, the lime kilns were creating worse problems for those in the nearby infirmary and thus relocated elsewhere but the street retained its original name; The Shambles – most famously in York, but also found elsewhere, it had been known as the Great Flesh Shambles – itself from Old English fleshammels ‘flesh shelves’ and thus where butchers would display their meat.

All Alone Road in Bradford, Yorkshire used to be exactly what it says, or rather it ran to a solitary house owned by Dr Samuel Ellis and built in 1773. He lived here with the Honourable Liam Plunkett, until his death in 1798, his gravestone in Calverley churchyard claims he was the brother of the Earl of Fingall in the County of Meath, Ireland. It is speculated the good doctor’s friend was in fact his patient, a man suffering mental problems. Dr Ellis built this house on common land, resulting in him incurring a fine of £1 7 shillings in 1777, but not evicted.

Dumb Woman’s Lane in Winchelsea, Sussex was once the home address of Terence ‘Spike’ Milligan. He lived in what was known as Carpenter’s Meadow, a house designed by 1960’s architect C. P. McLaughlin. Spike described his home as ‘the ugliest house in the world’ and promptly renamed it The Blind Architect and, when asked on Room 101 what could be done to improve it Spike replied “set fire to it”. As to the name there are two suggestions as to how it came about, one stating a woman unable to speak offered herbal remedies to locals; while the second speaks (pun intended) of how this had been the route taken by smugglers since the 14th century, so she could not tell of the enormous amount of contraband passing her home they cut out her tongue.

If you think you know someone who would like to hear me speak on this subject, drop me a line. Incidentally, if you are booking this talk you’ll need to give me adequate time to research sufficient examples.

Science

A few will be aware I have been known to speak on various subjects over the years. Fundamentally these all revolve around my favourite subject of etymology. Have always enjoyed bringing this fascinating subject to others. It’s not for me to say whether the audiences have, although many have asked me to return.

Thought it might be worthwhile sharing a snippet or two from these etymological presentations, continuing with Science. For most of us science began and ended with the school laboratory, since then only the odd documentary has subjected us to the many scientific terms. But just what is a scientific term? How many do we use every single day? You would be surprised how many you not only use but understand and even more surprised by how these terms came about and their original meaning. There is a PowerPoint presentation to accompany this talk if required.

A few examples, just a taster, and beginning with sulphur: note it is correct to use the American spelling of ‘sulfur’, is seemingly of Greek derivation and deliberately uses the ‘ph’ to suggest such. Yet nothing could be further from the truth as this is from the Latin sulfur, coming to English through the French soufre, and originally used to mean ‘brimstone’ although coming from a root meaning ‘to burn’

Arsenic: is sadly best known as a poison, however it is an essential dietary requirement in creatures such as rats, hamsters, goats, chickens and even humans (albeit only in trace amounts). It is found in three common allotropes known as black, metallic grey and yellow – this final form being particularly relevant in the origin of the name. Arsenic has been known since prehistoric times and recorded by the Greeks as arsenikon, itself from the Syriac zarniga and Middle Persian zarnik, both meaning ‘gold-coloured’. That it has been used for millennia for its decorative qualities does allow us to trace it back to Proto-Indo-European ghel meaning ‘to shine’. There is no truth in ‘arsenic’ coming from the term arsenokoites, found in the New Testament when St Paul speaks against homosexuality. Undoubtedly this does come from the Greek arsen ‘man’ and koites ‘bed’, and understood as ‘lying with men’, but any similarity to arsenic is purely coincidental.

Hydrogen: may be the most abundant element in the universe but is named for being ‘water producing’ for this is from Greek hydor ‘water’ and French gene ‘producing’. In English it was once known as Cavendish’s inflammable air, thankfully this ended by the end of the 18th century

Tantalum: was named by Swedish chemist Anders Ekberg in 1802. As tantalum does not absorb acid, he named it after Tantalus, the king of Phrygia, son of Zeus and father to Pelops and Niobe. In Greek mythology he is the one who was punished (for various reasons depending upon which version one reads) in the afterlife by standing up to his chin in a pool of water under a branch laden with fruit – yet whenever he stooped to drink or raised his head to eat they always remained just out of reach. Question is, why would it bother him if he was dead?

If you think you know someone who would like to hear me speak on this subject, drop me a line.

Household Items

A few will be aware I have been known to speak on various subjects over the years. Fundamentally these all revolve around my favourite subject of etymology. Have always enjoyed bringing this fascinating subject to others. It’s not for me to say whether the audiences have, although many have asked me to return.

Thought it might be worthwhile sharing a snippet or two from these etymological presentations, continuing with Household Items. Pots and pans, cutlery, white goods, and even those most basic items such as the table, the chair and the bed - at some point in time these must have been named and why were these chosen? A fascinatingly different look at our history through both language and everyday items. Some things will never be seen in the same light again. There is a PowerPoint presentation to accompany this talk if required.

And for a taster let’s take a look at a few examples beginning with toaster: from ‘toast’, first used to refer to the browning of bread in the early 15th century, this came from the Old French toster meaning ‘to grill, roast, burn’ and, in turn, comes from the Latin torrere ‘to parch’ which is ultimately from Proto-Indo-European ters ‘to dry’. Interestingly this is also the origin of ‘terrain’, which today refers to a broad expanse of ground but originally meant ‘dry ground’ and thus the phrase ‘desert terrain’ or ‘waterless terrain’ is quite superfluous.

Knife: comes from Proto-Germanic knibaz also meaning ‘knife’. Note the pronunciation with a silent ‘k’ is only since 1750 – this was not deliberate, it is simply quite difficult to continually say ker-nife.

Toilet: now you might be a little surprised to find the earliest use in English, seen from 1530s, came from Middle French toilette meaning ‘a cloth, bag for clothes’. This shares an origin with ‘toil’, itself a Middle French origin where toile meant ‘hunting net, cloth, web’ and traced to Proto-Indo-European teks ‘to weave’. So how did ‘cloth’ become ‘karzee’? The answer, as with all changes, is by association – the cloth adorned the dresser, the dresser was in a small room or closet, and eventually to the inevitable lavatory attached or included. Now you’re going to ask about ‘lavatory’, which comes from the same root as ‘lave’ and referred to a ‘place for washing’ – and thus began as a euphemism for ‘toilet’.

If you think you know someone who would like to hear me speak on this subject, drop me a line.