The Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue was first published at the end of the eighteenth century, and given that the Coronavirus crisis is giving too much time to read books, I thought I’d pick a daily word from it until I got bored…..
Break-Teeth Words
This is a humorous little phrase, meaning “hard words, difficult to pronounce”. Unfortunately, I can’t find much evidence in books or papers that this was ever in common usage, but I still like it…..
Part of my Streets of Norwich project….
There’s not much history left in Clement Court, but it does still exist behind the locked gates and the street name by its entrance remains.
One of the most important pieces of history here is that Francis Burges published the first English provincial newspaper on 6 September 1701, the Norwich Post. The newspaper was published between 1701 and 1713, although unfortunately the earliest surviving copy is from 1707.
This map from the 1880s shows that there was a Plymouth Brethren meeting room in the court, which could seat 260 people. The buildings around the court were mostly destroyed in 1957 when the Norfolk News Company extended their premises.
Another part of the legacy provided to the Uffizi by the controversial Count Alessandro Contini-Bonacossi, there’s not a vast amount known about this marble sculpture. However, experts have managed to pinpoint it to likely being from between 1475 and 1480 because of the style, they suspect it’s of St. John and it’s likely from the circle of artists linked to Giovanni Antonio Amadeo. Certainly an impressive piece of deduction by the curators to ascertain all of that. And, other than a dent to the nose, it’s in a pretty good state of repair given it’s over 500 years old.
The Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue was first published at the end of the eighteenth century, and given that the Coronavirus crisis is giving too much time to read books, I thought I’d pick a daily word from it until I got bored…..
Bray
The dictionary defines this as “a vicar of Bray; one who frequently changes his principles, always siding with the strongest party: an allusion to a vicar of Bray, in Berkshire, commemorated in a well-known ballad for the pliability of his conscience”.
I hadn’t heard of this phrase, although a film was made with the title of ‘Vicar of Bray’ in the 1930s, telling the story. Like most of these things, there are differing tales from other the centuries, it likely refers to Simon Aleyn who served as the Canon of Windsor between 1559 and 1563. He managed to shift from being a Catholic to a Protestant and then back to a Catholic, before finally changing back to Protestantism. I can think of some politicians like him….
The text of the ballad is at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Vicar_of_Bray_(song).
Painted at some point between 1515 and 1520 by Vincenzo Cateno, the artwork shows the two apostles meeting with Christ after He has risen. The information by the painting notes that the figure in black was likely the patron who funded the artwork.
The information also notes that “the two apostles recognise their Master when Christ blesses and breaks the bread just as He had done at the Last Supper”. The artist was Venetian and lived between 1480 until around 1531, with this painting being part of the legacy provided by Count Alessandro Contini-Bonacossi (who appears to have been an enormously controversial figure) who died in Florence in 1955.
The Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue was first published at the end of the eighteenth century, and given that the Coronavirus crisis is giving too much time to read books, I thought I’d pick a daily word from it until I got bored…..
Bran-faced
Not the most politically correct of terms, although to be fair, this dictionary is over 200 years old, this is defined as “freckled, he was Christened by a baker, he carries the bran in his face”. I can’t find much mention of this term being used in print, so I’m guessing that it wasn’t particularly widespread. Probably not one that needs to be brought back into usage…
Part of my Streets of Norwich project….
King Street is one of the longer streets in the city centre, with this section running between Prince of Wales Road and Rose Lane.
This is how the street looked like in the 1880s.
The building on the left is, I think, the former Royal Oak public house, in operation between the 1850s and closed in 1921.
The building which has what looks like a black frontage (behind the blue sign) was the Cock pub which was a licensed premises between the mid-eighteenth century and 1975 when it finally closed. It’s located at 32 King Street and the frontage is an original pub frontage from the nineteenth century.
What is now the Last Pub Standing, which is a reference to it being the last public house on King Street, but was formerly known as Kings, Bar Rio, Tusk and the Nags Head. The building, which is at 27-29 King Street, was formerly two residential properties from the seventeenth century.
The building on the left is the side of Hardwick House, which was built as a bank, before becoming the city’s main Post Office.
The stretch of King Street was once the main road through, but this section has now been mostly pedestrianised.
The Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue was first published at the end of the eighteenth century, and given that the Coronavirus crisis is giving too much time to read books, I thought I’d pick a daily word from it until I got bored…..
Bragget
The dictionary defines this as “mead and ale sweetened with honey”, which seems to have been a common word at the time, derived from the medieval word ‘brag’ meaning malt. The drink was sweet, and often had spices added to it, with the word also being spelt ‘braggot’ or ‘braket’.
Chaucer used the word as early as the fourteenth century, but it has pretty much fallen out of use now.
Part of my Streets of Norwich project….
This is quite an easy street in terms of the history of the buildings on it, as they were all built over the last couple of years.
It’s located off of Rosary Road, which is a much older street, with The Nest being located around where it says ‘Lime Kilns’ on the above map from 1830.
By 1885, the current location of The Nest is pretty much where the buildings were located under the Brick Works site.
The street takes its name from The Nest, which was Norwich City’s football ground between 1908 and 1935. Although the street isn’t on the site of the former ground, it is relatively near.
The Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue was first published at the end of the eighteenth century, and given that the Coronavirus crisis is giving too much time to read books, I thought I’d pick a daily word from it until I got bored…..
Bowsprit
The dictionary defines this as “the nose, from its being the most projecting part of the human face, as the bowsprit is of a ship”.
Another one of those words which is slowly going out of use. However, the word ‘bow’ is still listed as another word for noise, so perhaps this is the same derivative.
