Yonic . . . ever heard of it?

Last night, having just completed a new quilt block, I held it up to admire and immediately thought . . . oh, no.  Is my vase . . . is my flower . . . too . . . too . . . and then realized that there was no word in my vocabulary to finish the sentence.

Why is it that every adult is familiar with the word phallic, but, at fifty-two years old, I had to use Google to search out its female counterpart?

In any case, my daughter assures me that the quilt block is fine, with nothing noticeably yonic about it.  My daughter-in-law, on the other hand, said, "Oh, yes, I can definitely see that."

Flipping the . . . Dickey Birds?

As I was searching for bird-related camp activities, I ran across a few postings explaining that the old nursery rhyme "Two Little Dickey" birds has actually traditionally been an entertaining finger play intended for little children. Unfortunately, as I read through the instructions for the finger-play, I realized that it would probably not be a good choice for camp . . . partly because the phrase "dickey birds" would very likely elicit snickers, and partly because the accompanying finger-play involves waving middle fingers (!)

Yesterday it suddenly occurred to me that this might not be an unfortunate coincidence at all: instead, I may have stumbled upon the actual origin of the phrase "flipping the bird" (something that I have wondered about before, since there don't appear to be any birds involved in either the gesture or its meaning!)

Far-fetched? Maybe-- and tracing the origins of coarse expressions is apparently notoriously difficult, even for experts-- but I think this explanation has distinct possibilities! Here's the scoop:

The "Two Little Dickey Birds" rhyme was first recorded when published in Mother Goose's Melody in London, around 1765. Of course, by then it had probably already been around for quite some time.

The words are simple:

"Two little dickey birds/ sitting on a wall
One named Peter/ the other named Paul.
Fly away, Peter! Fly away, Paul!
Come back, Peter! Come back, Paul!"

Apparently the appellation "dickey bird" has long been used in England to refer to any small, chirpy bird (not a particular species).

Many nursery rhymes that have remained in use throughout the years have meanings or accompanying games that have been long forgotten.  For this particular rhyme, a piece of stamp paper (since I live in the U.S.A., I'm not sure exactly what that is!) is stuck to the pads of each index finger, right and left, to represent Peter and Paul. As each bird is named in line two, the respective index finger is waved around to attract attention. (The rest of the hand is loosely closed into a fist.)

As Peter "flies away" in line three, the speaker puts his right hand quickly over his shoulder and brings it back, but now with the middle finger waving around. Whoa! Where did the birdie go?! Paul quickly follows suit.

Then, on the last line, each hand goes over the shoulder again and comes back with . . . magically! . . . the little "birds" visible once more!  http://ingeb.org/songs/twolittd.html

I can see how this finger play must have been very entertaining to small children . . . almost like a magic trick!  However, my conjecture is that the extended middle fingers must have appeared noticeably phallic, and may have elicited smirks and perhaps even the beginning of unsavory associations for the words "Dick" and "Peter." And . . . who knows? . . . perhaps this little finger play for children is the reason that the coarse hand gesture is now referred to as "flipping the bird."

Or . . . the purported connection could be total misinformation!  :)

"Peeling" or "Pealing"?

For years, a car that takes off in a showy, fast departure with squealing tires has been said to "peel out." It seems the origin of the expression is that a person who does this is literally laying down rubber . . . "peeling" it off your tires!

However, twice this past week I have come across the term "peal out" being used instead. Upon a little deeper investigation, it seems apparent that people have misunderstood the term, thinking it refers to the sound the tires make (like a bell "pealing") rather than the peeling of rubber. 

New online "authority" sites such as freedictionary and urbandictionary have simply accepted the new phrase as authentic and added it to our collective vocabularies, providing one of the best examples to date of how linguistic errors made by enough people eventually become acceptable.

Fruits, Veggies, Herbs, and Organic Foods

Spencer as a teenager used to claim that he was working towards his daily recommended amounts of fruits and veggies by drinking Mountain Dew. After all, orange juice is one of the ingredients! As it turns out, the definitions of many plant-related food terms are indeed nebulous enough to allow for some very odd claims.

 "Vegetable" technically and historically means anything having to do with a plant. So flowers, fruits, seeds, stems, roots, and leaves are all vegetables in that sense . . . even if they are inedible or poisonous! In common usage, though, the word "vegetable" is now used specifically for plant parts that are edible.

In culinary usage, there are some very non-botanical explanations of why some fruits (the part of the plant containing seeds) are called "fruits" whereas others are more often called "vegetables." If usually served as a side dish (e.g. cucumbers, green beans, and most squashes), they are called "vegetables," but if traditionally served as dessert (e.g. oranges, cherries, grapes, watermelon), they are called "fruits." I suppose the designation must have been difficult for certain foods such as apples and pumpkins that can be used either way.

The tomato is especially interesting. In 1883, in order to find a loophole in the tax on vegetables (can you imagine a special tax on vegetables today?!), farmers protested that the tax should not apply to tomatoes, since they are obviously fruits, botanically speaking. The Supreme Court ruled that tomatoes must officially be classified as vegetables!

The word "herb" has a similarly wide basic definition, meaning any seed-bearing plant that dies down at the end of a season . . . edible or not! And perhaps the most infamous example of a plant word's being hijacked into a specialized meaning is "organic." This word has always applied to all living organisms, and to any material derived from a living organism. So, in spite of the pressure to set up specific standardized designations for "organic" food, the simple truth is that all food is organic!

Fans and Fanatics

We got to wondering the other day why people use the word "fan" to describe an avid devotee of a sport, celebrity, etc.  Couldn't help visualizing a pharaoh being fanned by his slaves and wondering if there was some kind of connection.

As it turns out, though, "fans" is just a shortened form of "fanatics," which I think is totally amusing. When I hear the word fanatic, religion is the first thing that comes to mind-- but with their ridiculous rituals, costumes, chants, fervent opinions, etc., sports fans are about as "fanatic" as it's possible to be!.

There But for the Grace of God . . .

"There but for the grace of God go I." 

Although this can come across as a pious "holier than thou" type of statement, the irony is that the original person who spoke this comment ended up in the very situation that he was grateful to have avoided.  John Bradford, a protestant reformer, was imprisoned in the Tower of London after the Catholic queen Mary gained the English throne. From his prison cell, as he saw a group of prisoners being taken to execution, he made his famous remark, "There but for the grace of God goes John Bradford." Eventually, he met the same fate, being burned at the stake at Newgate Prison in 1555.

Wikipedia Article on John Bradford

Canvas/ Cannabis

According to Scott, it's just an alternate pronunciation.  Canvas originally must have been made of hemp!