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Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 8
stranger
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stranger
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 8 |
wwh says
>>>Glass Slipper (of Cinderella). A curious blunder of the translator, who has mistaken vair (sable) for verre
(glass). Sable was worn only by kings and princes, so the fairy gave royal slippers to her favourite.<<<
And "vair" perhaps becomes English "fur"?
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Joined: Jan 2001
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Carpal Tunnel
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OP
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
Vairy possible. I'll try to look it up. Incidentally, all those posts are just quotes from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. It had a painfully slow server, which you would hate http://www.bootlegbooks.com/Reference/PhraseAndFable/data/115.htmlSearch inidicates no relation of "vair" to "fur": fur - 1301, from O.Fr. fourrer "to line, sheathe," from fuerre "sheath, covering," from a Frank. word based on P.Gmc. *fothram "sheath." The n. is from the v. It was first applied to "animal hair" 15c.
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 1,692 |
Interesting that Goodman has also become a surname.
dxb
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Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 1,692
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2002
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Farthing A fourth part
I well remember the farthing - it must have been legal tender into the 1960s I would guess. It had the monarch's head on the front and a wren on the back. A small coin, it was about the size of the silver threepenny bit that we used to put into Christmas puddings.
Cloth used to be priced to the farthing when I was a boy - 19 shillings, eleven pence and three farthings a yard, or nineteen-eleven-three, was a very common price for my mother to pay for dress making material.
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2002
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Genoa from the Latin, genu (the knee); so called from the bend made there by the Adriatic.
I believe it is also a type of ship's sail. Perhaps it was a type used by ships from that area?
dxb
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Joined: Mar 2002
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2002
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Gig (g hard). A whipping topCan one of the musicians on the board tell me why a rock band's performance is called a "gig"? Showing my age here  . dxb
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Joined: Oct 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Oct 2000
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i too remember farthings from a childhood trip to Dublin.. back then the irish pound was tied to the value of the english pound, and it was $5.70 US to £1 Sterling.. and a farthing was worth almost 2 US cents! Farthings and Ha'pennies went far in a candy store! thru'pence was a fortune!
(mind you i was also mesmerized by a woman on a bus, she had some souvenier jewelry made from US Mercury dimes.. and i sat staring at them.. she started to explain to me that it was American money, and i repied, yes, i knew, she was wearing over $1.70 as jewelry! how rich i thought, she must be to be able to wear money!)
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Joined: Jan 2001
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Carpal Tunnel
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OP
Carpal Tunnel
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My dictionary has four words spelled "gig". The fourth one is:
>gig4 7gig8
n.
[Slang]
1 a job performing music, esp. jazz or rock
2 any job
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Joined: Jun 2001
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2001
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Dr. Bill, gigs (the tops) can still be found in any mercado in Mexico, at least they could last I looked! My nephews all had them. Thanks for that memory. 
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