Aboiement

Aboiement, pronounced ab-bwah-MENT, is the involuntary blurting of animal noises, such as quacking or barking. Although it is not quite involuntary GB and I suffer from a mild form of aboiement, but then our duck noises are something to be beheld – or rather 'beheard' if there were such a word.

Mind your 'p's and 'q's.

As a child it was not that unusual – especially if going visiting people – to be told to “mind your 'p's and 'q's.”.  The phrase simply meant to be on your best behaviour – to act politely and not mess around in any way. 

There is a variety of suggestions as to the origins of the phrase all of them amusing but none of them conclusive.  The first is that ‘p’s and ‘q’s was simply a shortened form of ‘pleases and thankyous’. 

The second was that it arose as an admonition to innkeepers.  They would chalk up whether their customers owed them for a pint or a quart.  It would therefore be reasonable to ask them to be well-behaved and mind they didn’t mark up ‘q’s instead of ‘p’s.   

A third suggestion is that it arose from the days when Frenchmen had to be advised how exactly to bow and not mix up their pieds (feet) and queues (wig-tails).  This sounds like a typical anti-French remark from the days of the early nineteenth century.

But that latter idea is rather scuppered by the fact that the first use of the expression is claimed to be 1602 but it is not clear if the phrase/usage there is the same. In a Thomas Dekker play of that year the following appears:-

    Afinius: ...here's your cloak; I think it rains too.

    Horace: Hide my shoulders in't.

    Afinius: 'Troth, so thou'dst need; for now thou art in thy Pee and Kue: thou hast such a villanous broad back...

'Pee and Kue' in that context seems to be referring to a form of clothing, but that is somewhat ambiguous.  Dekker later used the term in West-ward Hoe, a joint work with John Webster, 1607:

    “At her p. and q. neither Marchantes Daughter, Aldermans Wife, young countrey Gentlewoman, nor Courtiers Mistris, can match her.”

Moofer

Moofer is an acronym.  It stands for 'Mobile out-of-office worker' and refers to people who are employed but work from home rather than going into an office day by day.  The word was coined recently by James McCarthy, a Microsoft worker, in his blog entitled 'Mr Moof'.

No better than she should be

 If a girl is described as 'no better than she should be' one is suggesting, by this classic understatement, that she is immoral.  The first record of it is from an early 18th century translation of Cervantes  ‘Don Quixote’.    Whether it was coined at the time or was an earlier phrase that was in common usgae no one knows.  

Perhaps not surprisingly there is no equivalent male phrase that I am aware of.

Girandole

If you come across the word girandole you will need to know the context to understand its meaning because the word has a number of interpretations. It can be a type of firework, like a Catherine wheel; a revolving fountain jet; a type of candle holder; and a piece of jewellery in which a large central stone is surrounded by smaller ones.

This is one type of girandole.... 

 Ugh!

Spoffokins

 A spoffokins was a prostitute posing as a wife.  So presumably when “Mr and Mrs Jones” booked into a cheap hotel for just one night there was always a possibility she was a spoffokins!

Geromorphism

Geromorphism is the condition of appearing older than one’s age. I hope none of my readers suffer from it.  I'm sure you don't!

Hypocorism

 It took an e-mail from a Belarusian friend (whose English is brilliant) to alert me to this new word.  Thanks Mish.  It always amazes me how people learn foreign languages when the characters or alphabet are different.  I found it hard enough learning Latin and French with the same alphabet.

A hypocorism is a pet name or endearing name, often one using a diminutive affix.  For example, in English "Sally '' is a hypocorism for "Sarah ''.   

Similarly, in Russian, Mish is a hypocorism for Mishka.  Mishka (Мишка) means bruin which is in turn a hypocoristic for bear (Medved - Медведь).  So Mish is a double hypocorism if there is such a thing!

Alternatively, hypocorism can be another word for a euphemism - a mild or indirect word or expression for one too harsh or blunt when referring to something unpleasant or embarrassing.

The adjective from hypocorism is hypocoristic .

 

Momnesia

It has been thought in the past that mothers often recalled little of the first year of their child’s life – a concept known as momnesia.  In 2008 research confirmed there was a basis for such thought.  Apparently the parts of the woman’s brain needed to care for the young child block out extraneous matters and ‘take over’ those parts need for memory, hence momnesia.