# Poplollies and Bellibones



## cuchuflete

Today I made the three mile trek into the village for provisions, and also visited the town dump.  Feeling virtuous that I recycle nearly everything that said establishment will take, and because the sun has finally become visible after weeks of rain, I visited the Skidompha Library's used book store.

In the obscure and dusty language section I found a gem: Poplollies and
Bellibones, A Celebration of Lost Words  by Susan K. Sperling, with illustrations by George Moran, and a Foreword by that wonderful wordsmith, Willard Espy.  ISBN 0-517-53079-1  Published by Clarkson N. Potter, 1977.

For less than the cost of a pack of cigarettes, or a pineapple if you prefer, I have something to share with you, from time to time.  It's great fun!

Here's an entry, selected at random:



> Fools have always been around for others' pleasure, but they are no longer designated by such lively names as _fopdoodle_, a word for an ordinary simpleton or fool.  _Fonkin_ was a diminutive, almost affectionat-sounding word for a little fool who possessed more charm perhaps than the silly _fopdoodle_.  A _hoddypeak_ was a stupid blockhead, as were the_ hoddy-noddy_ and the _hoddypoll_.



If you enjoy these snippets, say so and more will appear from time to time.

cheers,
Cuchuflete


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## jacinta

I am definitely going to work "fopdoodle" into my daily vocabulary.  Or possibly _hoddypeaK_ is better.  I can't decide!!  I'll have to use both. Very fun words.  Keep them coming!


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## lsp

More! More!   You'll recognize me in every forum I join in the future if you see a someone with the username _fonkin_!


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## mjscott

ISP--you silly fopdoodle! You've already turned over 2000 posts! You'd have to start over as a mere fonkin!


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## Grammarian-in-Training

If there's a hoddypeak, and then there's a hoddy-noddy, is there also then a hoddy-poddy?  If not, I coin that word.  I'll be sure to call someone a hoddy-poddy in the next 24 hours.


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## lauranazario

Dearest Qxu, 
I BEG you to keep feeding us these delectable morsels. Pass the pineapple, sir. 

Saludos,
LN


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## ojyram

Only a birdbrain, blockhead, bonehead, chump, dolt, donkey, dope, dork, dunderhead, dupe, lamebrain, loon, lunkhead, meathead, numskull, sap, schlemiel, turkey, twerp, or twit would not want more bellibones and poplollies!

Please tell us now.... what is a poplolly?  Is it the same as a lollypop?


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## mjscott

Well, ojyram, I think Qxu isn't going to be a hoddynoddy--he'll dole out the poplollies and bellibones in small increments so that our vocabularies will expand gradually!


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## LadyBlakeney

Mr. Cuchu, thanks for sharing that pearl with us, you're so kind!!!

Please, use the same thread every time  so that we don't miss any of the precious installments.


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## cuchuflete

What a delight to find others who smile at this discovery....

Here's one more, also selected at random, before the sun comes up today.
*
Whistersnefet*  What on Earth is it? 





> A _whistersnefet_ is a blow or buffet, like a slap on the ear.   Whistersnefets are a source of _adlubescence_ for masochists.


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## mjscott

cuchuflete said:
			
		

> What a delight to find others who smile at this discovery....
> 
> Here's one more, also selected at random, before the sun comes up today.
> 
> *Whistersnefet* What on Earth is it?


 
Sounded like whistersnefets could have been prolific with with the _Three Stooges. _Looking up their adlubescence (or the adlubescence of those who enjoy the _Three Stooges)_, I came upon this:

http://www.spizzquiz.net/index.html

I'm thinking that if they were adlubescent, it was for hitting the other guy--not for hitting themselves.

I'm guessing the verb to express the action of either getting or receiving the whisternefet would be _whistersneffting_. The administrator of the whistersnefet would be the _whistersnefet*er*,_ and the receiver of such action would be the _whistersnefet*ee*._


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## te gato

Ahhh..Cuchu KIA;

Please do continue..do not make us merry-go-sorry..for we all have an aeipathy for your much loved postings..and if you do not..we will all be full of amarlence..
so please make us bonifate..and grant us a brabeum...

tg


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## mjscott

Are these words Albertan, or te_gatalán?


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## te gato

mjscott said:
			
		

> Are these words Albertan, or te_gatalán?


Hey mj;
Oh I so wish I could take credit for them...(_sigh_)..but...I can not...

They are forgotten words.....like Cuchu's...

and I'm not going to tell you what they mean..(_nah..nah_)..you have to figure them out all by yourself... 

the oh so hard to forget..forgotten tg...


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## la grive solitaire

I'll be breviloquent*: Verbivores* unite!   It's a great idea, cuchu--send more soon!

(*From a dictionary-in-progress of obscure words: http://www.islandnet.com/~egbird/dict/dict.htm)


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## lauranazario

Cuchu... where is our next installment from that rare gem of a book???? 

Anxiously waiting,
LN


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## cuchuflete

The _hardhewer graffed_ for stone for a _knosp_.
 Foir the door to his _cosh, upsy-English_ with burl;
He_ theeked_ it with thatch and stood back to
_aimcry_,
 Then shrieked, "_Juvament! Hadivist_!  _No eyethurl_!"

Gather round, my darling mugwumps, and I'll tell you what the little book has to say about all these matters.

Hardhewer is a stonemason, and graffed means dug. A knosp, as you doubtlessly guessed, is naught but an architerctural ornament. It's shaped like a flower bud or a knob. A cosh is your average small cottage, and this one is in the manner of the English or English- style...upsy-English. 

Still with me you fine curmudgeons in training...? Theeked is thatched, or covered the roof with protective straw, which also invites mice to nest. To aimcry is to approve or admire, and a cry for Juvament simply means "Help!!"

When you need an expression of regret, for making one of your rare mistakes, you cry out Hadivist!. According to Sperling, it is "a pang of remorse for having done something in ignorance, as if to say, 'If I had only known!' or 'I wish I had thought of it before!'"

The eyethurl is the window.  

If this sounds like Benjois to you, just imagine Benjy's ancestors speaking it.

Un abrazo,
Cuchu


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## la grive solitaire

cuchuflete said:
			
		

> A knosp, as you doubtlessly guessed, is naught but an architerctural ornament. It's shaped like a flower bud or a knob.


lol--Delightful! Here's "knosp" in (surprisingly) an early 20th-century poem:

1 I saw a Melancholy Wasp
              2 Upon a Purple Clover Knosp,
              3 Who wept, "The Poets do me Wrong,
              4 Excluding me from Noble Song --
              5 Though Pure am I and Wholly Crimeless --
              6 Because, they say, my Name is Rhymeless!
              7 Oh, had I but been born a Bee,
              8 With Heaps of Words to Rhyme with me,
              9 I should not want for Panegyrics
            10 In Sonnets, Epics, Odes and Lyrics!
            11 Will no one free me from the Curse
            12 That bars my Race from Lofty Verse?"
            13 "My Friend, that Little Thing I'll care for
            14 At once," said I -- and that is wherefore
            15 So tenderly I set that Wasp
            16 Upon a Purple Clover Knosp.

http://eir.library.utoronto.ca/rpo/display/poem3079.html


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## zebedee

Ah, so a knosp can be a real flowerbud as well as an architectural accoutrement. Fascinating, thanks for the cute poem, la grive. Not sure I agree with a wasp being Pure and wholly Crimeless though...

Can't wait for the next installment QChu. Are you going to enlighten us as to what bellibones are? I presume Poplollies are the same as their counterparts.


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## cuchuflete

zebedee said:
			
		

> Ah, so a knosp can be a real flowerbud as well as an architectural accoutrement. Fascinating, thanks for the cute poem, la grive. Not sure I agree with a wasp being Pure and wholly Crimeless though...
> 
> Can't wait for the next installment QChu. Are you going to enlighten us as to what bellibones are? I presume Poplollies are the same as their counterparts.



I have yet to read that far, Estimada Zeb, but since you asked so nicely...
as befits a _bellibones (a lovely lady, a pretty lass" _from the French_ belle et bonne,  _I'll try to hunt it up.


Gracious, it's another synonym for a Zebedee!

_
Poplolly_:  





> A little darling (from the French _Poupelet_), a female favorite, special loved one, or mistress.




c.


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## ojyram

Thanks for the delightful tale of the knosp!

Here's my all time favorite:
# Jabberwocky - written by Lewis Carroll
Read 3728 times on PoetryConnection.net.

'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
did gyre and gimble in the wabe.
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

When there is no rhyming word, Dorothy Aldis simply created one,
as in this poem that I memorized many, many years ago as a child.

Eletelephony by Dorothy Aldis
Once there was an elephant
Who tried to use the telephant.
Oh, no! I mean an elephone
Who tried to use a telephone.
Dear me, I fancy quite,
That even now it isn't right
How'ere it was, he got his trunk
Entangled in the elephunk.
The more he tried to get it free
The louder buzzed the telephee.
I fear I'd better drop this song
of elehop and telephong.


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## cuchuflete

Thanks Ojyram...brings back childhood memories of elehops and telphongs.

Let's see who can translate this:


> _Glop_ the _bellytimber_, _givel_ the plate,
> Let the _reelpot_ pass the _jubbe_.
> Let _vasquines paggle_ and contours_ dumple_,
> 'Tis not _melpomenish_, nor worth the
> _Whoopubb_


.

cheers,
cuchu


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## cuchuflete

It must be the day of rest... No takers so far.

Well, here's another, _with_ a definition:

"He's out _glopping_ his _bellytimber_."  

Glopping=swallowing greedily
Bellytimber=food, provisions

That reminds me...time for a repast. Buen provecho.
c.


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## cuchuflete

Well, we have had about 6 months to digest the bellytimber, so I suppose it's time for another course.

*"Having proved himself on the battlefield, Tenderis's heart quopped with the thrill of meeting a different sort of challenge.  He vowed to rixle over the affections of the latest bellibone to catch his fancy, fairheaded Pretty Pure Polly Esther.  He had yarkened a picnic for them to share in a picturesque spot just a wurp away from a brooling brook, where Tenderis grandly unfolded the sanap for their lunch."

* Sperling,_ op. cit._​


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## cuchuflete

quopped= throbbed

rixle= have dominion


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## stargazer

Hi, I've just logged in and found all those lovely words!! Do keep them coming, please! I wonder why they came out of use  Does the book say anything about their origin, or how old they are?


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## la reine victoria

cuchuflete said:
			
		

> Well, we have had about 6 months to digest the bellytimber, so I suppose it's time for another course.
> 
> 
> *Tenderis grandly unfolded the sanap for their lunch."*
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Sperling,_ op. cit._
> 
> 
> ​




As an English person I find the word *'sanap'* very interesting as it is still in usage (but to a lessening degree) as *'snap',* which is a packed lunch made up by wives for their toiling husbands. I believe it is more widely used in the north of England and vaguely recall it was commonplace in the coal mining communities, but I'll have to check.

Brill words to give us Cuchu. Look forward to more.

Edit:  Listed in a dictionary of slang as 'a packed lunch - midlands and north England dialect.'  A typical coal miner's day (long ago) is described here
http://www.btinternet.com/~aldridgelhs/COAL.htm​


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## cuchuflete

LRV said:
			
		

> Brill words to give us




"Brill is a fictional female elf character from the comic book series Elfquest..."

Brill: a European flatfish.

I yield to the lady with the sceptre.  What be 'brill'?

Might it be this?


> adjective, exclamation
> UK INFORMAL FOR brilliant (VERY GOOD):
> You should buy this CD - it's brill!




More confusion from our friends at Opcit:

Sanap.  From the Old French sauvenape 'save the nape' (tablecloth). This particular strip of cloth was placed over the outer edges of the tablecloth to keep it from being soiled.
Hence, I infer that toiling husbands eat strips of linen for their mid day meal in parts of the UK.


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## la reine victoria

cuchu Sir,

If you had read my link to a day in the life of a coal miner, you would have seen that the 'snap' was 'wrapped in newspaper to keep the mice out' - very fanciful since rodents love nothing more than a good old chew on newspaper to make new nests for their ever growing families.  

However, this was definitely 'sauving the nappe', which probably only saw the light of day at Sunday tea.

LRV


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## cuchuflete

Your Majesty,

Reaching under my _penistone coverslut_ to withdraw the_ muckender_, which I shall hoist and wave in surrender...

May your Ma'amship accept my _liripoop_ with all intended respect,

Your _breedbate.
C_uchuflete


hmmmm...how do those royals know so much about mouse breeding, he wondered.


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## ojyram

I am amazed at you all.... that this thread is continuing after all these months.  I can hardly keep up with all the new words I encounter that ARE in common use.  How amazing that your brains can hold all these words, too!


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## cirrus

cuchuflete said:
			
		

> Reaching under my _penistone coverslut_ to withdraw the_ muckender_, which I shall hoist and wave in surrender...
> _C_uchuflete


 
Penistone is a village not twelve miles away from where I come from.  It is exactly the sort of place where you'd call your butties snap, or scran for that matter.  Coverslut I shall cherish.  The word will keep me warm against the delights of my (oh so willing!) return to work today.


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## Isotta

I always thought it odd that _snast_ was ever a word.

Z.


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## Isotta

I was just reminded of a lovely lost word for "firmament"--_welkin__.

_Z.


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## television

What a fun thread.  In response to the lead post:

"Fonkin" probably comes from the Middle English "fonke" which means "a spark of fire" or figuratively "something worthless or contemptible".


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## cuchuflete

Translation time.





> Reaching under my _penistone[coarse woolen cloth wooven in the town of Penistone] coverslut_[an apron] to withdraw the_ muckender_,[bib or handkerchief] which I shall hoist and wave in surrender...
> 
> May your Ma'amship accept my _liripoop_[tail hanging from a graduate's hood, like a tassel on a mortarboard] with all intended respect,
> 
> Your _breedbate.[mischief-maker]
> _



The above provided that you may avoid _misglozing_.


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## television

ME knappe:

(a) An ornamental knob on a cup, a dish or its cover; (b) a small projection on a surgical instrument; (c) a bunch or tuft on a shoe, cap, garment, armor, etc.; ?also, a tassel, a button, a clasp or fastener; (d) ?an embossed ornament on or under a roof [cp. *knotte in rof*]; (e) a knot or protuberance on a tree or plant; a bud, rosebud; also, a rose hip; (f) a joint in the stalk of a plant; (g) a testicle.


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## television

I have a friend who lives in Penistone.  It's a town near Sheffield about forty-five miles south of here.

I have a feeling there are plenty of coversluts there, too.


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## cuchuflete

Isotta said:
			
		

> I always thought it odd that _snast_ was ever a word.
> 
> Z.



Is doing bisnast the result of burning from both ends?  Sorry for the wicked pun.


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## la reine victoria

cuchuflete said:
			
		

> Translation time.
> 
> The above provided that you may avoid _misglozing_.


 
What strange misconceptions we have when trying to figure out the meaning of a new word.

*'muckender' *(thinks.........a tool used by rustic stable-lads when 'mucking out' the stables).

*'liripoop'  *(that which one has in a public convenience in Italy).

*'coverslut'* (a whore's dress).

La Reine


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## mjscott

What is a public convenience? Is that another word for a public restroom?


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## la reine victoria

mjscott said:
			
		

> What is a public convenience? Is that another word for a public restroom?


 
Yes!

La Reine V


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## Hakro

la reine victoria said:
			
		

> As an English person I find the word *'sanap'* very interesting as it is still in usage (but to a lessening degree) as *'snap',* which is a packed lunch made up by wives for their toiling husbands. [/left]


 You are probably right as you know English better than I do, but 'sanap' gives me an idea of the Swedish word *'senap'* that means mustard. I think that mustard could also be an alternative for lunch, couldn't it?


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## maxiogee

You ask if we should like more - may I capitalise my response and shout "YES - most decidedly". Should you wish to start a thread and post a word a day I would be a regular visitor.


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## cuchuflete

maxiogee said:
			
		

> You ask if we should like more - may I capitalise my response and shout "YES - most decidedly". Should you wish to start a thread and post a word a day I would be a regular visitor.


Thanks for that encouragement Maxiogee. If I can overcome my looming deadlines--catching up to me rapidly from the past--and general lassitude and sloth, I'll post some more soon.

Please add others of your own finding and preference.  These are lots of fun.


Un saludo,
Cuchu


Have I mentioned _bartholomew-pig_?  Our source tells us that

"A person who ate too much _bartholomew-pig_ paid for his excesses at a local _spittle."_


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## maxiogee

I presume the _bartholomew-pig_ to be something associated with _St Bartholomew's Day_, and the _spittle_ to be a corruption of _Hospital_, as in the London (England) district of Spitalfields,  which owes its name to a Hugenot hospital which was there.


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## cirrus

Nice idea but it's way too neat for me.  

I found this on the net.  "BARTHOLOMEW PIG- A term used by Shakespeare to refer to very fat people, these people resembling the whole roast pigs served on St. Bartholomew's festival. The festival was celebrated on August 24 from 1133 to 1855. The symbol for St. Bartholomew was the knife, alluding to the one used to flay him alive in Armenia in AD 44."  Source


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## la reine victoria

cirrus said:
			
		

> Nice idea but it's way too neat for me.
> 
> I found this on the net. "BARTHOLOMEW PIG- A term used by Shakespeare to refer to very fat people, these people resembling the whole roast pigs served on St. Bartholomew's festival. The festival was celebrated on August 24 from 1133 to 1855. The symbol for St. Bartholomew was the knife, alluding to the one used to flay him alive in Armenia in AD 44." Source


 
Nice one Cirrus, *me old china*,

What a horrible end for St. Bartholomew!  I have always associated flaying with whipping, but I see it can simply mean 'to strip the skin off'.
Yuk!  

Regards,

LRV


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## la reine victoria

Hakro said:
			
		

> You are probably right as you know English better than I do, but 'sanap' gives me an idea of the Swedish word *'senap'* that means mustard. *I think that mustard could also be an alternative for lunch, couldn't it?*


 

No, Hakro!  It would make a low-calorie but* HOT* and very unpleasant lunch.  

Mustard is what you put on your meat if you are having a sandwich for lunch.  An English favourite is roast beef and mustard.

Come to my sandwich bar when you sail into Cowes, I'll give you one on the house.  

Hali!
La Reine V


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## Hakro

la reine victoria said:
			
		

> No, Hakro!  It would make a low-calorie but* HOT* and very unpleasant lunch.
> 
> Mustard is what you put on your meat if you are having a sandwich for lunch.  An English favourite is roast beef and mustard.
> 
> Come to my sandwich bar when you sail into Cowes, I'll give you one on the house.
> 
> Hali!
> La Reine V


 A hot lunch could be quite pleasant on a cold winter day like today.

I have a sandwich deck in my boat but I don't use mustard on it. Anyway, I'll try it in your sandwich bar.

Hali, too!
Hakro


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