As Pepys talks about gooseberries "as big as nutmegs" and a spoonful of honey "with nutmeg scraped into it" I think we can assume he knows what a nutmeg looks like and how it is used. (See Cumgranissalis' links above)
muscat vs muscadet: The previous entry refererred to muscadine which is probably what we now call muscadet, a dry white wine. Muscat is a sweet dessert wine
Weights and measures: I thought there was a backgroumd section on this, but can't find it. One British fluid ounce weighs one ounce avoirdupois, so "a (20 ounce) pint of water weighs a pound and a quarter". A gallon therefore weighs 10 lbs. A US fluid ounce weighs slightly more than one ounce so a US pint weighs 1lb and 2/3 ounces and a gallon weighs 8lb 5 1/5 ounces. Metric is so much simpler: 1cc of water weighs 1 gram, 1000cc = 1 Litre weighs 1Kg, 1000 Litres = 1 cubic metre weighs 1 tonne
Old coronation town of the Saxon Kings, on the Thames in Surrey, up river from London, near Hampton Court. In Pepys time, Kingston bridge was the next bridge after London Bridge.
The construction is very similar to "lend me a bob or two... (until payday) even though the bob (shilling) is no more legal tender than the grain. However there is also the phrase "a grain of common sense" which seems closer to this usage: Penn lacks confidence, (with women?) so asks Pepys to lend him a grain or two of his. Pepys sarcastically replies that it is better "stored" (left) with him than Penn, who takes umbrage with the suggestion that confidence would be wasted on him.
South of Huntsmoor: On the second map is a little place called Heathrow Field. That is now Heathrow Airport; the world's busiest International airport.
Carrousel: Absolutely right Dirk. A bague in this instance (course de bague) is a ring hung up in the lists which the knights tilted at and tried to catch on their lances, if I have followed the word trail through the 1694 La Rousse, linked above, correctly. Maybe the course de teste (t?te) is something similar using a head as you describe.
Carrousel My flawed translation of dirk's definition: "A kind of festival consisting of head (to head?) races and ring (circuit?) races between many people, divided into teams of four, distinguished by their colours and livery, and by their magnificent different dress." This assumes "teste" is old French for "t?te” as “feste” is to “f?te” If they were racing around a ring on horse back, it is easy to see where the modern fairground meaning of car(r)ousel comes from.
Doing does to death: The example language hat gives of woo and sue, would have been wooeth and sueth with the accent on the second syllable, whereas doth is a single syllable. When evolving from Anglo-Saxon "thorn" to the Norman "z" sounding "s" form of third-person, the double syllable forms kept the sound of the first syllable and the second syllable softened and eventually disappeared. This doesn't apply to single syllable forms like doth and hath. To my (northern) ear doth has the same vowel sound as does, so doesn't sound anomalous to me. My Derbyshire Great-Grandfather's 19th century pronunciation of does was "doz". (and do was "doe" to rhyme with go) In the south of England it is "d[schwa]z" or daz; in the north it is duz. So which one is anomolous? Graphically "does" is regular. The "rule" about adding "s" to the third person is only partially true; there are several corollaries, e.g "es" after vowels other than "e", and after "s", "y" without a preceding vowel becomes "ies" (try/tries, pry/pries, but say/says), etc. Do is of course quite irregular (not anomalous) in the perfect tense.
"one wonders why "does" survives at all, since it is anomalous.” No it is not. In regular verbs, the third person present singular puts an “s” (run, talk, live, etc.) or “es” (pass, go, do, etc.) on the infinitive, so “to do” becomes “he/she/it does” in the 3rd person.
Wrong oil Vicenzo: Caster oil is taken as a laxative. Cod liver oil was taken against rickets. (lots of Vitamin D) Not sure if they knew that in Pepys or even Victorian times, but certainly post-war they did. Now is fashionable against joint problems, so I get to take it as a child and now as an oldie.
Link to map centred on Seething Lane and Crutched Friars. Note the nearby street name. St Olaves Church is about where the arrow point is. I have some photographs of this area for the Pepys discussion list, when I get a chance to post them. http://streetmap.co.uk/newmap.srf…
My Lord but Your Majesty: I always understood that nobility was "My" (My Lord) but royalty was "Your" (Your Highness/Majesty) but I can't understand why "My Lord" becomes "Your Lordship(s)"
Comments
First Reading
About Thursday 22 May 1662
GrahamT • Link
As Pepys talks about gooseberries "as big as nutmegs" and a spoonful of honey "with nutmeg scraped into it" I think we can assume he knows what a nutmeg looks like and how it is used. (See Cumgranissalis' links above)
About Thursday 22 May 1662
GrahamT • Link
muscat vs muscadet:
The previous entry refererred to muscadine which is probably what we now call muscadet, a dry white wine. Muscat is a sweet dessert wine
About Sunday 4 May 1662
GrahamT • Link
Weights and measures:
I thought there was a backgroumd section on this, but can't find it.
One British fluid ounce weighs one ounce avoirdupois, so "a (20 ounce) pint of water weighs a pound and a quarter". A gallon therefore weighs 10 lbs. A US fluid ounce weighs slightly more than one ounce so a US pint weighs 1lb and 2/3 ounces and a gallon weighs 8lb 5 1/5 ounces.
Metric is so much simpler:
1cc of water weighs 1 gram, 1000cc = 1 Litre weighs 1Kg, 1000 Litres = 1 cubic metre weighs 1 tonne
About Thursday 1 May 1662
GrahamT • Link
Language hat: I was agreeing with you. It was just an aside that the construction was similar to a bob or two followed by "However..."
About Kingston
Grahamt • Link
Old coronation town of the Saxon Kings, on the Thames in Surrey, up river from London, near Hampton Court. In Pepys time, Kingston bridge was the next bridge after London Bridge.
About Thursday 1 May 1662
Grahamt • Link
The construction is very similar to "lend me a bob or two... (until payday) even though the bob (shilling) is no more legal tender than the grain. However there is also the phrase "a grain of common sense" which seems closer to this usage: Penn lacks confidence, (with women?) so asks Pepys to lend him a grain or two of his. Pepys sarcastically replies that it is better "stored" (left) with him than Penn, who takes umbrage with the suggestion that confidence would be wasted on him.
About Truckle bed
Grahamt • Link
Truckle bed is everyday English. Search Google and you will find hundreds of links for bed shops selling them today.
About Huntsmoor, Buckinghamshire
Grahamt • Link
South of Huntsmoor:
On the second map is a little place called Heathrow Field. That is now Heathrow Airport; the world's busiest International airport.
About Wednesday 9 April 1662
GrahamT • Link
Carrousel:
Absolutely right Dirk. A bague in this instance (course de bague) is a ring hung up in the lists which the knights tilted at and tried to catch on their lances, if I have followed the word trail through the 1694 La Rousse, linked above, correctly. Maybe the course de teste (t?te) is something similar using a head as you describe.
About Wednesday 9 April 1662
GrahamT • Link
Carrousel
My flawed translation of dirk's definition:
"A kind of festival consisting of head (to head?) races and ring (circuit?) races between many people, divided into teams of four, distinguished by their colours and livery, and by their magnificent different dress."
This assumes "teste" is old French for "t?te” as “feste” is to “f?te”
If they were racing around a ring on horse back, it is easy to see where the modern fairground meaning of car(r)ousel comes from.
About Monday 7 April 1662
Grahamt • Link
Rigging:
to Rig oneself out is still used, though not commonly, meaning to dress up. I assumed it was a nautical expression.
About Thursday 13 February 1661/62
GrahamT • Link
Doing does to death:
The example language hat gives of woo and sue, would have been wooeth and sueth with the accent on the second syllable, whereas doth is a single syllable. When evolving from Anglo-Saxon "thorn" to the Norman "z" sounding "s" form of third-person, the double syllable forms kept the sound of the first syllable and the second syllable softened and eventually disappeared. This doesn't apply to single syllable forms like doth and hath.
To my (northern) ear doth has the same vowel sound as does, so doesn't sound anomalous to me.
My Derbyshire Great-Grandfather's 19th century pronunciation of does was "doz". (and do was "doe" to rhyme with go) In the south of England it is "d[schwa]z" or daz; in the north it is duz. So which one is anomolous?
Graphically "does" is regular. The "rule" about adding "s" to the third person is only partially true; there are several corollaries, e.g "es" after vowels other than "e", and after "s", "y" without a preceding vowel becomes "ies" (try/tries, pry/pries, but say/says), etc.
Do is of course quite irregular (not anomalous) in the perfect tense.
About Thursday 13 February 1661/62
Grahamt • Link
"one wonders why "does" survives at all, since it is anomalous.”
No it is not. In regular verbs, the third person present singular puts an “s” (run, talk, live, etc.) or “es” (pass, go, do, etc.) on the infinitive, so “to do” becomes “he/she/it does” in the 3rd person.
About Saturday 15 February 1661/62
GrahamT • Link
...and the song "The very thought of you"...
About Sunday 9 February 1661/62
GrahamT • Link
Wrong oil Vicenzo:
Caster oil is taken as a laxative. Cod liver oil was taken against rickets. (lots of Vitamin D) Not sure if they knew that in Pepys or even Victorian times, but certainly post-war they did. Now is fashionable against joint problems, so I get to take it as a child and now as an oldie.
About Saturday 25 January 1661/62
GrahamT • Link
Link to map centred on Seething Lane and Crutched Friars. Note the nearby street name.
St Olaves Church is about where the arrow point is. I have some photographs of this area for the Pepys discussion list, when I get a chance to post them.
http://streetmap.co.uk/newmap.srf…
About Sunday 19 January 1661/62
Grahamt • Link
"that our merchants here in London do daily break…”
Still in use in colloquial English as in being broke, i.e. bereft of funds.
About Monday 6 January 1661/62
Grahamt • Link
Twelfth Night.
Lots of information in the background notes http://www.pepysdiary.com/encyclo…
and annotations for previous years
About Wednesday 1 May 1661
Grahamt • Link
Strong.
We read yesterday that Portsmouth was a fortified Garrison town for the Navy, with 4 drawbridges. Maybe "strong" here is used literally.
About Saturday 20 April 1661
Grahamt • Link
My Lord but Your Majesty:
I always understood that nobility was "My" (My Lord) but royalty was "Your" (Your Highness/Majesty) but I can't understand why "My Lord" becomes "Your Lordship(s)"