Gallimaufry: A Hodge Podge of Our Vanishing Vocabulary

When did you last hear someone refer to the wireless? What was the original meaning of roly-poly? Do you know the derivation of the expression tin-horn gambler? Language is always changing, and in Gallimaufry, Michael Quinion has gathered together hundreds of fascinating examples of words and meanings which have vanished from our language. Sometimes a word is lost when the thing it describes becomes obsolete, sometimes it survives in a figurative sense while the original meaning is lost, and sometimes it simply gives way to a more popular alternative. We discover that scuttlebutt was the name of a water cask on a ship, around which sailors might gossip, the naval equivalent of the office water cooler. The popular hat Fedora got its name from a character in a French play (Fedora Romanov, played by Sarah Bernhardt). Fast and loose was originally the name of a sixteenth-century gambling game, which could easily be fixed. Eventually the game vanished, but the name remains, now meaning "to cheat" or "bend the rules." And Mick Jagger might be chagrined to learn that his last name comes from a Yorkshire dialect word for peddler. All told, the book includes over a thousand curious words grouped under such headings as Food and Drink, Health and Medicine, and Entertainment and Leisure. Quinion concludes the book with an index of featured words. Slangwhanger and Hornswoggle, Inkhorn and Hotpot--the story of these and many other words opens a window into the lives of past speakers of the English language. Lighthearted but learned, Gallimaufry offer a feast of curiosities for word lovers everywhere. "Quinion, a slashing-edge lexicographer who is host of the useful World Wide Words website, delights in debunking myths." --William Safire, New York Times