#37239
08/01/2001 6:16 PM
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Subject:
today's wwftd is... jackpudding
Date:
Wed, 01 Aug 2001 11:26:21 -0500 (CDT)
From:
wwftd master <mikef3@cfsmo.honeywell.com>
To:
wwftd minions <tsuwm@aol.com>
the worthless word for the day is: jackpudding
a clown; a buffoon; a merry-andrew
"Booth had bitterly complained to the Commons that the drearest
interests of his constituents were intrusted to a drunken jackpudding."
- Thomas Babington Macaulay, "The History of England"
1. What are the "drearest interests" (unless it simply a typo)
2 If Booth is an MP, how would the interests of his constituents be intrusted to anyone else?
3. "Jackpudding" is very likely a synonym for "wanker" ("pudding" at one time meant "sausage")
-tsuwm http://members.aol.com/tsuwm/
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#37240
08/01/2001 6:26 PM
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A) DREAR: Dreary, having nothing likely to provide cheer, comfort, or interest : (From Merriam-Webster On Line)
2) It would be nice were they intrusted to someone other than a drunken jackpudding.
Þ) Or maybe not.
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#37241
08/01/2001 6:29 PM
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>3. "Jackpudding" is very likely a synonym for "wanker"
...and the *first sense of wanker (at one source at least) is simply "a jerk"
1) "drearest interests" = dull, or perhaps common
2) Booth was a Lord (as in House of) and was complaining about the Commoner MP
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#37242
08/02/2001 7:25 AM
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With a little more context, the sentence reads:
Jeffreys conducted himself, as was his wont, insolently and
unjustly. He had indeed an old grudge to stimulate his zeal. He
had been Chief Justice of Chester when Delamere, then Mr. Booth,
represented that county in Parliament. Booth had bitterly
complained to the Commons that the dearest interests of his
constituents were intrusted to a drunken jackpudding.41 The
revengeful judge was now not ashamed to resort to artifices which
even in an advocate would have been culpable.
While Mr. Booth, who later became Lord Delamare, was a member of the Houses of Commons he complained about Judge Jeffrys having been appointed Chief Justice of Cheshire, which was presumably Booth's constituency.
For a fuller text see: ftp://ibiblio.org/pub/docs/books/gutenberg/etext00/2hoej10.txt
By the way, how do you link to a url which is not an http one?
Bingley
Bingley
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#37243
08/02/2001 11:57 AM
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addict
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addict
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, how do you link to a url which is not an http one?
It is still a url, so just use the url tags, if that is what you meant. You should be able to click on it as usual and the browser will follow the link.
Rod
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#37244
08/02/2001 12:13 PM
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just use the url tagsAin' that easy, rod. The markup processor looks at your url, sees they ain' no http:// in it so it adds it. You get http://ftp://ibiblio.org/pub/docs/books/gutenberg/etext00/2hoej10.txtWhich sends you off somewhere next door to Erewhon.
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#37245
08/02/2001 12:43 PM
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Dear Bingley: I just did Edit,copy, Edit paste and it worked fine. Thanks for having gone to so much trouble. Bill
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#37246
08/02/2001 1:04 PM
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addict
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just use the url tags for ftp urlsOk I see the problem. I haven't seen that in other sites and didn't try it here. It is a bug in the markup processor as far as I am concerned, which should just turn the url bracketed tags into an a href tag. Until they fix it or someone comes up with a clever workround, you can either leave it untagged, in which case the reader has to copy'n'past th elink in, or put tag it anyway, and leave the reader to remove the extraneous http:// from the front of the bad link. Putting the links in with and without the <A> tags doesn't work either. Rod
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#37247
10/12/2001 8:22 PM
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veteran
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veteran
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Is "intrust" rather than "entrust" archaic or is it simply a typo?
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#37248
10/13/2001 1:23 AM
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Dear plutarch: the word you questioned was spelled as Macaulay wrote it.
I went back and read the text until I found it. I saw a number of words
the spelling of which has changed.This part of his History of England
was completed in 1848.
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#37249
10/13/2001 1:50 AM
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You may or may not believe this, folks, but standard spellings are a twentieth century fixation ...  
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
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#37250
10/13/2001 2:54 AM
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Dear CK: but sometimes the a pie-eyed printer pied the type. I almost said typos were possible in 1848, but had to fall back and regroup.
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#37251
10/13/2001 7:04 AM
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Well, believe or not, Mr Ripley, I was once a member in paid-up standing of the pie-eyed printing fraternity, and I can tell you categorically that the quality of proofreading in the 1800s was far and away above that of today. You can get a job as a proofreader these days if you can walk and talk at the same time without your knuckles dragging on the ground. Once upon a time, you served your time as a copyholder and learned to read and write properly before you were allowed anywhere near the other side of the desk ...
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
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#37252
10/13/2001 1:16 PM
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Once upon a time, you served your time as a copyholder and learned to read and write properly before you were allowed anywhere near the other side of the desk
When I got my first real job on a newspaper (1949) we had about 15 proofers. By the '60s the number had dwindled to half that.
I blame computers.
When they came in with spellcheck it knocked proof readers off the job. (Never mind that spellcheck will pass cellar when the writer should have written seller.)
By the late 1980s into early 1990s the paper I worked on had one proof reader and only the front page stories,the police report and the occasional list of Grand Jury indictments were proofread!
Standards crashing all around us!
Now, as for errors in *books ... Arrrrrrrrrrgh!
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#37253
10/13/2001 1:28 PM
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Dear CK: it seems to have escaped your notice that the quotation that led me to start this thread did have a typo in it: "drearest" instead of "dearest". But I don't know who committed it.
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#37254
10/13/2001 1:36 PM
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Posts: 387
enthusiast
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enthusiast
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They need people to correct other things too. I was reading an article next to the comics, and they called a Greek god Vulcan instead of Hesphaestos, and said that Etruscans were Romans.
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#37255
10/13/2001 3:56 PM
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member
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From the OED...
The form intrust, though preferred in many recent Dicts., is now rare in actual use.
1. trans. To invest with a trust; to confide a task, an object of care to (a person, etc.); to commission or employ in a manner implying confidence. a. Const. to with inf., †for (a purpose), in (a business); also simply. Obs. or arch. exc. in Law.
a 1602 Carew Cornwall 82b, They+ were wont to be entrusted, for the Subsidiary Cohort, or band of supply. 1646 Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. iii. xi. 130 The Griffin+doth+well make out the properties of a Guardian, or any person entrusted. 1665 G. Havers P. della Valle's Trav. E. India 31 The last Advertisements+argue that the King still entrusts him. 1666 Pepys Diary (1879) IV. 108 The report we received from those entrusted in the fleete to inform us. 1691 in W. Perry Hist. Coll. Amer. Col. Ch. (1860) I. va. 4 The Archbishop of Canterbury+was wholly entrusted by the King and Court for all Ecclesiastical affairs. 1759 Robertson Hist. Scot. I. ii. 112 The clergy were entrusted because they alone were properly qualified for the trust. 1836 J. Grant Random Recoll. Ho. Lords xiii. 290 Earl Grey+entrusted his son-in-law in the execution of so important a task. 1885 Law Rep. Q. Bench Div. XIV. 202 The Attorney General only+was entrusted by the constitution to sue for the King.
b 1649 Milton Eikon. Wks. 1738 I. 387 The Governor besought humbly to be excus'd, till he could send notice to the Parlament who had intrusted him. a1674 Clarendon Hist. Reb. (1704) III. xii. 254 Sr Benjamin Wright; who was intrusted by them to sollicite at Madrid for their Pass.
From the dates of the quotes it would appear that this argument has been going on for some time.
There appear to be quite a few words with the in-/en- dual spelling. One thing that struck my fancy when looking up this word was the word, entuite. I was a given a roundtuit once at work, but I never thought that there would be an entuite.
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#37256
10/13/2001 9:20 PM
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If you have a roundtuit, then there can be no entuite. I understand your perplexity.
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#37257
10/14/2001 8:02 PM
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it seems to have escaped your notice that the quotation that led me to start this thread did have a typo in it: "drearest" instead of "dearest". But I don't know who committed it.
No it didn't escape my notice. I just don't believe that it was a typo. I prefer to think of it as an interesting usage from the period. And, as our Inker from Ithaca has pointed out, it's an acknowledged usage. Soooo - no typo.
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
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#37258
10/14/2001 8:39 PM
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Dear CK: What was supposed to be two copies of the same text had the one word printed two ways. What in hell do you call that?
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#37259
10/14/2001 11:38 PM
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old hand
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old hand
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In reply to:
DREAR: Dreary, having nothing likely to provide cheer, comfort, or interest"
All true Ozzies know this one. Immortalised in the song "Pub With No Beer" by our very own C&W legend, Slim Dusty.
"It's lonesome away from your kindred and all
By the camp fire at night where the wild dingoes call,
But there's nothing so lonesome so morbid or drear
Than to stand in a bar of a pub with no beer.
Now the publican's anxious for the quota to come
There's a far away lock on the face of the bum
The maid's gone all cranky and the cook's acting queer
What a terrible place is a pub with no beer.
Then the stockman rides up with his dry dusty throat
He breasts up to the bar, pulls a wat from his coat,
But the smile on his face quickly turns to a sneer,
When the bar man said sadly the pub's got no beer.
Ther's a dog on the v'randa-h for his master he waits
But the boss is inside drinking wine with his mates
He hurries for cover and cringes in fear
It's no place for a dog round a pub with no beer.
Old Billy the blacksmith first time in his life
Has gone home cold sober to his darling wife,
He walks in the kitchen, she says you're early me dear,
But he breaks down and tells her the pub's got no beer.
Found these lyrics and the story behind the (1944) song at:
http://www.crosswinds.net/~watchorn/songs/pubwithnobeer.htm
stales
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#37260
10/14/2001 11:46 PM
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#37261
10/15/2001 12:28 AM
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Ah, the difference one letter can make! From caress to cares. 
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#37262
10/15/2001 12:35 AM
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Dear Wordwind: The text I used as quoted by tsuwm had the word "drearest"
, which makes little sense. I found the orginal from tsuwm's citation, and found that the word should have been "dearest". I don't know how the error crept in. But the most probable explanation is a typo, though I don't see how it happened.
So any discussion of drear, or drearest is incompetent, irrelevant and immaterial, as Perry Mason used to say.
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#37263
10/15/2001 4:08 AM
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old hand
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Difficult to be "incompetent" (or, indeed, incontinent) in a pub with no beer! Unless of course Jack lives there, then fall down time comes around very soon.
stales
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#37264
10/15/2001 5:32 PM
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it could, just possibly, be the case that the typo is that of the gutenburg project (our only on-line ref.); i.e., they might have dropped the 'r' from drearest (more probable than adding an extraneous letter). I imagine that I got the citation from OED (i'll check), and it made sense to me that this MP would be complaining that a chief justice wasn't paying attention to his (the MP's) constituents' dreary or sad interests. indeed, what jackpudding would want to be so burdened? [of course if *I somehow added that extraneous letter...]
but I digress; I guess we'll just have to wait for someone to peruse the original source in order to settle our conundrum.
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