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Our regional antiques expert, Arthur Schwerdt, had some interesting linguistic tidbits pertaining to Valentines to share in his Cape May County Herald column today. > "pennydreadfuls" - With advances in printing in the 1800s, several kinds of crudely illustrated Valentine post cards were printed. These were called "pennydreadfuls," because it was said that a young lady would prefer to receive no Valentine at all than one of those horrific store-bought atrocities. [my insert: according to the column it was customary before this to make all Valentines by hand; for an intriguing, and short, history of how Valentines came to be and developed click the link below] > "Vinegar Valentines" - At that time there was also an odd, and thankfully short-lived [although Pfranz would've loved this one ], tradition of sending purposely insulting Valentines ( like, "I'd never marry an ugly thing like you in a million years"). These were supposed to be endearingly humorous, but were quickly named "Vinegar Valentines." >"Worcester Valentines" - [to paraphrase: Around 1840, an enterprising and ambitous young student at Holyoke Collge, Esther A Holland, whose father was a stationer in Worcester, MASS, decided she would go into business for herself to make Valentines to sell to folks who didn't have the time to make the highly prized hand-made variety. In her first year she grossed $5,000, an enormous sum for the times, then she hired artists and marketers, and soon her business was doing $100,000 a year, an unheard of sum in those days. These highly sought after cards [both then and, now, on the antigues market] are called "Worcester Valentines". [keep those eyes peeled at flea markets and garage sales, folks!...especially up in your neck of the woods, eta and wow]] >"Lupercalia" - Valentine's Day coincides with the Roman festival of "Lupercalia" (like Christmas coincides with "Saturnalia") Lupercus (from the Latin, lupus, meaning wolf, was the god who helped shepherds protect their flocks. During one of the festival's games, the men of the town leered like wolves as they chose by lottery from the flock of local virgins, the written name of who would be their mate for the following year. [hey! I like this game guys! let's bring it back! ] [I guess now we know where the expression "wolf" came from for men with an eye for the ladies] For the complete column with more background on Valentine's Day history and traditions, and more details on the above excerpts, click here: http://www.capemaycountyherald.com/index.cfm?CID=news_list&Section_ID=3 Hope Cupid finds ya!
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That's fun, Whit! I thought penny dreadfulls were are cheap magazines, sold for a penny, which had scary stories and the like.
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I first heard "penny dreadfuls" meaning small cheap books poorly written, vulgar in content.I found many sites supporting this view.
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Cool site, WhitmanO'Neill, thank you! Sounds like a Worcester card would be a very cool Valentine to receive, even today. Nice collector's item.
according to the column it was customary before this to make all Valentines by hand
I can recall making all my Valentine's cards by hand in elementary school. My great aunt and I still exchange homemade Valentine's cards. I get the better deal though since she is an artist and I am decidedly not.
My son gave his classmates Lord of the Rings Valentines this year. We tied a gold-colored "Ring of Power" on each card. They were very cute.
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>>..."penny dreadfuls" meaning small cheap books poorly written, vulgar in content.
That is also the only definition of penny dreadfuls I have ever known. WON, maybe you should write this Schwerdt person and ask him what his source for this information is. It'd be interesting to find out.
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EDIT:
I did a bit of net surfing myself and it seems that the Herald reporter might have mixed up his information. Apparently, vinegar valentines and penny dreadfuls are the same thing. They weren't called dreadfuls because of the quality of the printing but because they were sent to people you didn't like and were caustic or comical - something 'dreadful' the receiver would not appreciate.
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>penny dreadfuls< Well, Google shows 122 hits of various Valentine historical sources which cite "penny dreadfuls" (mostly two words) as "a humorous Valentine of the 19th Century". Here's one: http://library.indstate.edu/newsletter/feb03/valentinesdayfacts.htm
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Pooh-Bah
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<<WON's link>>
I thought these two were interesting:
In Victorian times it was considered bad luck to sign a Valentine's Day card. (Because, on the other hand, an anonymous suitor can't be rebuffed?)
Over 1 billion Valentine cards are sent in the U.S each year. (My one and only love)
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Here's another word citation I somehow missed on the same site:
>In the Middle Ages, young men and women drew names from a bowl to see who their valentines would be. They would wear these names on their sleeves for one week. To wear your heart on your sleeve now means that it is easy for other people to know how you are feeling.<
I know we've covered the phrase "wearing your heart on your sleeve" on this board before...anybody recall if this was the origin we came up with?
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Well, all 9 Dictionary hits on OneLook cite the "cheap, melodramatic paperback novel" definition, many say it's chiefly Brit., the British version of the USn "dime novel." None even list the Valentine associaition as an obsolete usage or origin. Yet, all those Valentine historians point to this Valentine slang. Does the OED have any further entymology on this, please, OEDers? Here's the OneLook page, the Quick definiton is on the right: http://onelook.com/?w=penny+dreadful&last=pennydreadful&loc=spell1
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