Some juicy linguistic morsels from English
December 6, 2022 3:59 AM Subscribe
Spending too much money on food and drink is an act known as abligurition, according to one 18th-century dictionary – the result of which might be a feeling of barleyhood (a Tudor-period word for a hangover), or crapulence (defined by Samuel Johnson as “sickness by intemperance”). And after all that overindulgence you may well need to swadge (to relax after a large meal), and be in dire need of a yulehole – a term defined by the superb Scottish National Dictionary as “The hole in the waist-belt to which the buckle is adjusted to allow for repletion after the feasting at Christmas.” (Should you need it, the excellent Scots word pang, according to the same source, can be used to mean “to force an unwanted article on someone”. Ergo, it is the perfect word for Boxing Day, or for all the Bounty bars left in the bottom of your tub of Celebrations.) Author Paul Anthony Jones reveals the roots of his love of obscure words in The Guardian.
Biffa I concur enthusiastically. Everyone mail me your unwanted Bounties.
Is... is this a ... mutiny?
posted by aesop at 4:42 AM on December 6, 2022 [7 favorites]
Is... is this a ... mutiny?
posted by aesop at 4:42 AM on December 6, 2022 [7 favorites]
Bounty bars have the divisive coconut element that sets them apart. Of all possible things to disputandum over Christmas, Celebrations gustibus is relatively harmless. (Let’s do Favorites/Heroes next.)
posted by zamboni at 5:01 AM on December 6, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by zamboni at 5:01 AM on December 6, 2022 [2 favorites]
Aesop, it does make you a bounty hunter.
posted by zamboni at 5:02 AM on December 6, 2022 [3 favorites]
posted by zamboni at 5:02 AM on December 6, 2022 [3 favorites]
I was particularly taken by the word yulehole. The actual meaning is pretty good, but I've decided that it is also the name for the nearlyinaccessible cupboard behind my fridge where the box of Christmas decorations lives in my flat.
Bounty bars are the best, if you don't mind spenind hours dislodging bits of coconut from between your teeth.
posted by Fuchsoid at 5:49 AM on December 6, 2022 [1 favorite]
Bounty bars are the best, if you don't mind spenind hours dislodging bits of coconut from between your teeth.
posted by Fuchsoid at 5:49 AM on December 6, 2022 [1 favorite]
Yeah, this Bounty hate is baffling. Mars finds that 40% of Britons polled hate them, and so decide to remove them from Celebrations—despite the clear implication that 60% don't hate them. Leave your Bounties "in the bottom of your tub" for the majority of us.
I always go for the Bounties first. Also (in non-Celebrations selections), anything with marzipan or Turkish delight, which means that I clean up whenever I'm with my in-laws, who hate both. Win-win.
Anyway, Britain has turned its back on marzipan-eating countries and set its sights on those parts of the world where coconut is treated like the superior ingredient that it most certainly is, so it can eat its Bounties and bloomin' well like 'em.
posted by rory at 6:06 AM on December 6, 2022 [2 favorites]
I always go for the Bounties first. Also (in non-Celebrations selections), anything with marzipan or Turkish delight, which means that I clean up whenever I'm with my in-laws, who hate both. Win-win.
Anyway, Britain has turned its back on marzipan-eating countries and set its sights on those parts of the world where coconut is treated like the superior ingredient that it most certainly is, so it can eat its Bounties and bloomin' well like 'em.
posted by rory at 6:06 AM on December 6, 2022 [2 favorites]
Having stuffed myself full of bite-sized Bounty-flavoured rants, I turn my attention to TFA, and...
There had been something joyless about it. Everything I had loved about language – about sharing my love of language – was gone. It felt as if all the most interesting aspects of it were being kept behind glass, like rare artefacts in a museum that no one visits any more.
...is an excellent description of the experience of taking an academic course that kills your love of the subject. Like having to read a novel for school versus reading it for pleasure.
posted by rory at 6:16 AM on December 6, 2022 [1 favorite]
There had been something joyless about it. Everything I had loved about language – about sharing my love of language – was gone. It felt as if all the most interesting aspects of it were being kept behind glass, like rare artefacts in a museum that no one visits any more.
...is an excellent description of the experience of taking an academic course that kills your love of the subject. Like having to read a novel for school versus reading it for pleasure.
posted by rory at 6:16 AM on December 6, 2022 [1 favorite]
I will happily spend hours dislodging bits of coconut from between my teeth, because I love it. My American dad turned me onto Almond Joy, which is how I developed a taste for sweet coconut in candy. Now that I live in Sweden, I buy a Bounty bar from time to time because they are delicious. So are the old words hogamadog, whullup (to give a gift to someone in an attempt to curry favour with them), and flapdoodler. If those aren't tasty, I don't know what is.
posted by Bella Donna at 6:16 AM on December 6, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by Bella Donna at 6:16 AM on December 6, 2022 [1 favorite]
Bounty bars are the best bit. In almost any situation.
In respect of the article, we went through a highly ironic period of referring to each other chez MMDP as dowsabel and snout -fair . It didn't last but it was a bit of fun.
posted by Martha My Dear Prudence at 6:26 AM on December 6, 2022 [1 favorite]
In respect of the article, we went through a highly ironic period of referring to each other chez MMDP as dowsabel and snout -fair . It didn't last but it was a bit of fun.
posted by Martha My Dear Prudence at 6:26 AM on December 6, 2022 [1 favorite]
I'm doing some post dinner swadging right now, thankfully have avoided crapulence thus far.
Bounties are OK but are basically an inferior cherry ripe.
posted by pianissimo at 7:01 AM on December 6, 2022 [3 favorites]
Bounties are OK but are basically an inferior cherry ripe.
posted by pianissimo at 7:01 AM on December 6, 2022 [3 favorites]
Yeah, this Bounty hate is baffling
Indeed. I know when they first arrived in Canada: partway through my first year of university. I was working at the school newspaper, and in the bottom level of the same student services building was a campus store. I recall one day right around this time of year when someone reported (tidings of comfort and joy) that the new shipment of Bounty bars was in downstairs and the newspaper people descended in a not entirely unlocustlike fashion to acquire them all.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 7:07 AM on December 6, 2022 [2 favorites]
Indeed. I know when they first arrived in Canada: partway through my first year of university. I was working at the school newspaper, and in the bottom level of the same student services building was a campus store. I recall one day right around this time of year when someone reported (tidings of comfort and joy) that the new shipment of Bounty bars was in downstairs and the newspaper people descended in a not entirely unlocustlike fashion to acquire them all.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 7:07 AM on December 6, 2022 [2 favorites]
With regards to the subject of the FPP, Mrs Biscuit asked me last year as a Xmas gift to text her an obscure word and its etymology/definition every day. I admit I fell off a bit around October but I will undertake it again in 2023.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 7:10 AM on December 6, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by ricochet biscuit at 7:10 AM on December 6, 2022 [2 favorites]
Bounty bars are fucking delicious.
posted by thivaia at 7:56 AM on December 6, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by thivaia at 7:56 AM on December 6, 2022 [1 favorite]
Bounty bars are pretty good, but they're no Golden Rough.
posted by flabdablet at 8:41 AM on December 6, 2022
posted by flabdablet at 8:41 AM on December 6, 2022
They must once have had some currency to be in a dictionary, earning them a chance at being rescued from relative obscurity
Not in the case of 'abligurition', which according to the OED is a ghost word, only found in eighteenth-century dictionaries, with no evidence of actual usage. (Possibly a copyright trap inserted by Nathan Bailey in his Universal English Dictionary, 'the most popular English dictionary of the eighteenth century', to catch pirates.)
posted by verstegan at 8:54 AM on December 6, 2022 [5 favorites]
Not in the case of 'abligurition', which according to the OED is a ghost word, only found in eighteenth-century dictionaries, with no evidence of actual usage. (Possibly a copyright trap inserted by Nathan Bailey in his Universal English Dictionary, 'the most popular English dictionary of the eighteenth century', to catch pirates.)
posted by verstegan at 8:54 AM on December 6, 2022 [5 favorites]
Another enthusiastic adherent of Team Bounty here. I'm the eldest of my friend-group and they usually ascribe my preference for old-people confectionery to my age, but my sister's only a year younger and she always used to swap me her Parma Violets because she hated them. Taste is complicated!
Briefly back on topic, cheers Bella Donna for the link. I'm an anorak for new or niche words, which probably explains why I'm a rubbish communicator and even worse at foreign languages ("Oh, that's a cool word, I'll just learn nothing and steal it for my English idiolect as is traditional!")
posted by I'm always feeling, Blue at 9:05 AM on December 6, 2022 [2 favorites]
Briefly back on topic, cheers Bella Donna for the link. I'm an anorak for new or niche words, which probably explains why I'm a rubbish communicator and even worse at foreign languages ("Oh, that's a cool word, I'll just learn nothing and steal it for my English idiolect as is traditional!")
posted by I'm always feeling, Blue at 9:05 AM on December 6, 2022 [2 favorites]
Seconding cheers to Bella Donna, words beautiful words. Speaking of, the ever-bountiful H.L. Mencken coined "ombibulous" as, an omnivorous drinker, so there's my business card sorted; and I would have to say I'm most fluent in Baragouin, a 1600's word for gibberish.
posted by winesong at 9:16 AM on December 6, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by winesong at 9:16 AM on December 6, 2022 [2 favorites]
Gongoozler is another perfectly cromulent word.
posted by Martha My Dear Prudence at 9:35 AM on December 6, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by Martha My Dear Prudence at 9:35 AM on December 6, 2022 [2 favorites]
As a recent fan of Amanda Thomson I am reading, and taking notes from, her A Scots Dictionary of Nature [get]:
Attercap n a spider; an ill-natured person, one of virulent or malignant disposition.
Bobantilter n an icicle.
Bounty n a confection best peeled and added to curry.
Crony n a potato.
etc.
posted by BobTheScientist at 12:44 PM on December 6, 2022 [2 favorites]
Attercap n a spider; an ill-natured person, one of virulent or malignant disposition.
Bobantilter n an icicle.
Crony n a potato.
etc.
posted by BobTheScientist at 12:44 PM on December 6, 2022 [2 favorites]
I am putting attercap to use ASAP; it is wonderful. Thanks!
posted by Bella Donna at 1:02 PM on December 6, 2022
posted by Bella Donna at 1:02 PM on December 6, 2022
They've ruined Mounds bars for me. The chocolate is now greasy and soft, and has no actual chocolate flavor.
posted by Soliloquy at 1:42 PM on December 6, 2022
posted by Soliloquy at 1:42 PM on December 6, 2022
Remember the song in The Hobbit that Bilbo taunts the spiders with?
Old fat spider spinning in a tree!
Old fat spider can’t see me!
Attercop! Attercop!
Won’t you stop,
Stop your spinning and look for me!
posted by Harvey Kilobit at 8:22 PM on December 6, 2022 [3 favorites]
Old fat spider spinning in a tree!
Old fat spider can’t see me!
Attercop! Attercop!
Won’t you stop,
Stop your spinning and look for me!
posted by Harvey Kilobit at 8:22 PM on December 6, 2022 [3 favorites]
One of the few things I miss from Twitter is his Haggard Hawks account. If he's porting it to Mastodon, someone please tell me where to find it!
posted by gentlyepigrams at 10:18 PM on December 6, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by gentlyepigrams at 10:18 PM on December 6, 2022 [1 favorite]
The rumour back in primary school was that the 'coconut' in Bounty was actually some form of treated pumpkin. Older me understands that this is along the same lines as Richard Gere's alleged affection for gerbils. Older me still doesn't want your damn Bounty.
posted by quinndexter at 11:16 PM on December 6, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by quinndexter at 11:16 PM on December 6, 2022 [1 favorite]
The rumour back in primary school was that the 'coconut' in Bounty was actually some form of treated pumpkin.
Bunkum. Guff. Hogwash. Baloney. Poppycock.
FSANZ takes its work very seriously, and any food vendor who falsified an ingredients list to that extent would have the affected foods removed from shop shelves very bloody quickly.
That aside, anybody who has ever eaten a spoonful of plain desiccated coconut can confirm that what's left behind in the mouth after letting all the sweet syrupy bits of a Bounty bar dissolve is, in fact, coconut. The stuff is unmistakable.
There ought to be a ten dollar word specifically for bullshit memes that can't withstand even an instant's critical thinking. Something that would let me express a thought along the lines of "what a load of total tuckercarlson".
posted by flabdablet at 5:19 AM on December 7, 2022 [1 favorite]
Bunkum. Guff. Hogwash. Baloney. Poppycock.
FSANZ takes its work very seriously, and any food vendor who falsified an ingredients list to that extent would have the affected foods removed from shop shelves very bloody quickly.
That aside, anybody who has ever eaten a spoonful of plain desiccated coconut can confirm that what's left behind in the mouth after letting all the sweet syrupy bits of a Bounty bar dissolve is, in fact, coconut. The stuff is unmistakable.
There ought to be a ten dollar word specifically for bullshit memes that can't withstand even an instant's critical thinking. Something that would let me express a thought along the lines of "what a load of total tuckercarlson".
posted by flabdablet at 5:19 AM on December 7, 2022 [1 favorite]
You forgot malarky in your otherwise lovely list, flabdablet. Also, did you perhaps miss a section in the fucking article (TFA)? What is Tucker Carlson and his ilk if not flapdoodlers (19th-century slang for a dissembling political speaker) who traffic in roorbacks (rumours circulated for political gain)? We just need to bring back these words by using them. Admittedly, the word just is doing a lot of heavy lifting in that sentence but flapdoodler fits Carlson to a T.
posted by Bella Donna at 7:10 AM on December 7, 2022
posted by Bella Donna at 7:10 AM on December 7, 2022
You forgot malarky in your otherwise lovely list, flabdablet.
Flabdablet shows us the way. Further discussion of sweetmeats, bonbons and confectionery in this thread must include the finest archaisms and recondite phrases from your word-hoard.
posted by zamboni at 7:20 AM on December 7, 2022 [1 favorite]
Flabdablet shows us the way. Further discussion of sweetmeats, bonbons and confectionery in this thread must include the finest archaisms and recondite phrases from your word-hoard.
posted by zamboni at 7:20 AM on December 7, 2022 [1 favorite]
One of the few things I miss from Twitter is his Haggard Hawks account. If he's porting it to Mastodon, someone please tell me where to find it!
Haggard Hawks has an eponymous website, where you can sign up for a forthcoming email newsletter and also find his Mastodon account. Right now it's really just a placeholder though.
posted by ManyLeggedCreature at 10:39 AM on December 7, 2022 [1 favorite]
Haggard Hawks has an eponymous website, where you can sign up for a forthcoming email newsletter and also find his Mastodon account. Right now it's really just a placeholder though.
posted by ManyLeggedCreature at 10:39 AM on December 7, 2022 [1 favorite]
You forgot malarky
Pishwinkle! Scrivendry! Crozenges! Puskerage! Flunsterance! Whacksally!
Now I have to get into the fishtank and sing.
posted by flabdablet at 10:44 AM on December 7, 2022 [1 favorite]
Pishwinkle! Scrivendry! Crozenges! Puskerage! Flunsterance! Whacksally!
Now I have to get into the fishtank and sing.
posted by flabdablet at 10:44 AM on December 7, 2022 [1 favorite]
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posted by biffa at 4:29 AM on December 6, 2022 [5 favorites]