the weekly worthless word is: gardyloo

proposed: the word gardyloo, now fallen into desuetude, shall be
resurrected and required as a warning cry whenever a congressman
is about to put voice to a declamation within the Hallowed Halls
of Congress [or substitute 'minister' and 'Parliament']

gardyloo - used in Edinburgh, in the days when chamber pots were in common
use, as a warning cry when throwing slops from the windows into the streets;
[perhaps from French garde a l'eau - look out for the water; also possibly
the source of the word loo]


http://members.aol.com/tsuwm

Of course we still do that in Edinburgh!

Brewer has a wonderful citation from Smollett’s ‘Humphry Clinker’:

"At ten o’clock at night the whole cargo of the chamber utensils is flung out of a back window that looks into some street or lane, and the maid calls "Gardy loo" to the passengers."

Smollett doesn’t record any response from the ‘passengers’.

A great way to start the day (see the ‘se’nnight’ post)

Is it possible? Do I dare? I tremblingly submit to the
Supreme one a tentative, uncertain correction: 'garde' is
the French word used for the singular You. 'Gardez' goes
with the plural You, which is much more likely to have
been called down to a street full of people.
Gardez probably descended to gardy.

Incidentally--I just saw and tried "that markup thang"
(hi, Anna) and couldn't figger it out--will keep tryin'.

Jackie, I actually have to say that I'm sure I really just don't know.

http://members.aol.com/tsuwm

Jmh:

I came across this passage today in Ford Madox Ford’s Parade’s end, set around the period of World War I:

"There was in Edinburgh a society … where the ladies are all great ladies in tall drawing-rooms; circumspect yet shrewd; still yet with a sense of the comic; frugal yet warmly hospitable. It was perhaps just Edinburgh-ness … "

I don't know the quote but Edinburgh (in particular Morningside, where I live) is well known for its ladies. Well dressed, shrewd ladies who know the correct way to pour a cup of tea and know the right way to serve shortbread with precisely the right kind of doily. Cross them if you dare!