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Carpal Tunnel
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a subscriber writes:
----- Original Message -----
From: Jordan Hall
To: wwftd master
Sent: Thursday, December 11, 2008 6:31 AM
Subject: Re: today's wwftd is... holus-bolus
Hi There,
If this is the sole interpretation (and indeed it's the only definition I've ever come across) what do you make of this usage by Christopher Fry?
TYSON: ... One of those quaint astrological holus-boluses, quite all right.
TAPPERCOOM: Quite. An excess of phlegm in the solar system. It was on its way to a heavenly spittoon.
(From The Lady's Not For Burning, 1948)
Thanks,
Joran
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: wwftd master
To: wwftd minions
Sent: Tuesday, December 9, 2008 6:59:46 PM
Subject: today's wwftd is... holus-bolus
the worthless word for the day is: holus-bolus
[prob. reduplication of bolus, a large pill]
/HO lus BO lus/
all at once: altogether
(file bolus under: so that's what that's called)
"With these words, she appeared to lose all command
over herself; and, making a sudden snatch at the heap
of silver, put it back, holus-bolus, in her pocket."
- Wilkie Collins, The Moonstone (1868)
"That scene is stolen, holus bolus, for the remake,
which lards in all the fiery extras that really don't
add much."
- Peter Howell (movie critic), The Toronto Star
Feb 3, 2008
"With your thumb, push the stem rod forward to place
the capsule or bolus into the horse's throat."
- Theo. Landers, Professional Care of the Racehorse (2006)
a secondary sense of bolus is (by M-W) a soft mass of chewed food. the usual usage of holus-bolus is as an adverb: <gulped it down, holus-bolus> what Fry seems to have done (in nouning the adverb, rather) is convert it to rhyming slang. any thoughts?
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Carpal Tunnel
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Where I live, Tyson, refers to Chicken products. As for the rest:
Whew, I'm lost.
----please, draw me a sheep----
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Um...what came before "One of those quaint astrological holus-boluses, quite all right.", do we know? That is, was it anything that might have added to the context?
Based on these two lines, I would guess* that something quick and fairly catastrophic had occurred; a sun spot erupting, or a "shooting star", or even a nova.
*Assuming that the author knew the meaning of holus-bolus and was not, as you suggested, simply putting it in for the "sound effect" as it were.
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Carpal Tunnel
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here's what I finally found at Google[books] when I searched for "holus-boluses"  link [Psalm 140] A lament seeking rescue from violent and treacherous foes. link
Last edited by tsuwm; 12/14/2008 1:44 AM.
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Carpal Tunnel
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A dictionary offers ( link): "A mess, jumbled up. [Cod Latin or a ponderous pun on Greek holos bolos]".
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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member
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Playwright Fry found holus-bolus useful, but a rhyming poet or songwriter might as well—if looking for a rhyme for hocus-pocus.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Hey, it was a shooting star! What do you know?
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Carpal Tunnel
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speaking of hocus-pocus: the old Catholic Mass: HOC EST enim
corPUS meum: "this is my body". The priest faced the wall, the
bread became the body of Christ, the uneducated masses (people)
thought it was magic: hence: what they could hear: hocus-pocus.
----please, draw me a sheep----
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Carpal Tunnel
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speaking of hocus-pocus: the old Catholic Mass: HOC EST enim
corPUS meum: "this is my body". The priest faced the wall, the
bread became the body of Christ, the uneducated masses (people)
thought it was magic: hence: what they could hear: hocus-pocus.
Quinion advises taking this with "a fair-sized pinch of salt." link
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old hand
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old hand
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Only because the first recorded use in writing was in a Protestant polemical piece. That doesn't mean it's not true. I would think that would still be the best guess - most people in those times would have thought it sounded somewhat like the Latin Mass. Whether it was started by an irreverent Catholic or Protestant, a send up of the Mass seems a logical origin for it. There are documented alleged cases in the 16th century and earlier of profane and cynical priests doing just that kind of thing - saying nonsense phrases instead of the right Latin words and having a joke on the ignorant peasants who thought they were getting the Sacrament according to the rites of the Church when all they were being offered was...hocus pocus.
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