Post by Verbivore on Apr 1, 2016 12:01:45 GMT
Who said that dictionaries were dull reading!
I have been, in my spare time over the past few years, proofing and re-typesetting an 1898 Dictionary of Austral English that I found on Project Gutenberg. (Yes, I know, I could "get a life" instead; however … .)
This morning I was working on the entries under M.
Under the entry for Mopoke or More-pork (a New Zealand owl, so named after its call) – is a supporting quotation fit for a Dad’s Army sketch (or perhaps one featuring the late Ronnie Corbett as the officer-in-charge). It had me crying with mirth as I pictured the scene.
Quotation source: Power, W.T.; Sketches in New Zealand (1849) p. 74:
"This bird gave rise to a rather amusing incident in the Hutt Valley during the time of the fighting … . A strong piquet was turned out regularly about an hour before daybreak. On one occasion the men had been standing silently under arms for some time, and shivering in the cold morning air, when they were startled by a solemn request for more pork. The officer in command of the piquet, who had only very recently arrived in the country, ordered no talking in the ranks, which was immediately replied to by another demand, distinctly enunciated, for more pork. So malaprop a remark produced a titter along the ranks, which roused the irate officer to the necessity of having his commands obeyed, and he accordingly threatened to put the next person under arrest who dared make any allusion to the unclean beast. As if in defiance of the threat, and in contempt of the constituted authorities, more pork was distinctly demanded in two places at once, and was succeeded by an irresistible giggle from one end of the line to the other. There was no putting up with such a breach of discipline as this, and the officer, in a fury of indignation, went along the line in search of the mutinous offender, when suddenly a small chorus of more pork was heard on all sides, and it was explained who the real culprits were."
I have been, in my spare time over the past few years, proofing and re-typesetting an 1898 Dictionary of Austral English that I found on Project Gutenberg. (Yes, I know, I could "get a life" instead; however … .)
This morning I was working on the entries under M.
Under the entry for Mopoke or More-pork (a New Zealand owl, so named after its call) – is a supporting quotation fit for a Dad’s Army sketch (or perhaps one featuring the late Ronnie Corbett as the officer-in-charge). It had me crying with mirth as I pictured the scene.
Quotation source: Power, W.T.; Sketches in New Zealand (1849) p. 74:
"This bird gave rise to a rather amusing incident in the Hutt Valley during the time of the fighting … . A strong piquet was turned out regularly about an hour before daybreak. On one occasion the men had been standing silently under arms for some time, and shivering in the cold morning air, when they were startled by a solemn request for more pork. The officer in command of the piquet, who had only very recently arrived in the country, ordered no talking in the ranks, which was immediately replied to by another demand, distinctly enunciated, for more pork. So malaprop a remark produced a titter along the ranks, which roused the irate officer to the necessity of having his commands obeyed, and he accordingly threatened to put the next person under arrest who dared make any allusion to the unclean beast. As if in defiance of the threat, and in contempt of the constituted authorities, more pork was distinctly demanded in two places at once, and was succeeded by an irresistible giggle from one end of the line to the other. There was no putting up with such a breach of discipline as this, and the officer, in a fury of indignation, went along the line in search of the mutinous offender, when suddenly a small chorus of more pork was heard on all sides, and it was explained who the real culprits were."