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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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OP
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
""Many thanks," he said. "Then there is no mistake, and I am the happy benedict. I suppose I should go stand upon the bridal corner, and when my wife gets through walking the streets she will look me up."
A word I've not seen for a long time. An old slightly jocular synonym for married man, presumably in a blessed state.
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,004
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,004 |
Has this come from Much Ado...?
Before that, of course, benedict was a word for an ointment or medicine - a cure for depression or some such?
Shakespeare's play, on the other hand, was so popular that bowdlerised versions were produced where the 'main' plot (Hero and Claudio) was almost excised altogether, and the play was re-titled "Benedict and Beatrice". Perhaps Benedict's happy state became a byword for successful matrimony?
cheer
the sunshine warrior
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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OP
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
Dear Shanks: again, you amaze me.
benedict
SYLLABICATION: ben·e·dict
PRONUNCIATION: bn-dkt
NOUN: A newly married man who was previously considered a confirmed bachelor.
ETYMOLOGY: After Benedick, a character in Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare.
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