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Post by Jim on May 24, 2018 17:17:26 GMT
I have a lovely ‘roses & castles’ painting lady friend, Viv, who is a proper wordsmith - She was educated / abused by nuns at a strict Catholic girls boarding school and knows latin and all sorts of old shite like that! One of my favourite old words she mentioned to me is 'Sootikin' which dates from long before sanitary towels and tampons, and translates as 'a piece of dried menstrual detritus, often found on the church floor under the pews'.😳 Fascinating! 🙂 It amuses me how people use the term "toe rag" not having a clue as to its derivation. "Pacifically" it should be Tow Rag, a menstrual towel made from cotton waste by mill girls. Another interesting derivation is "feisty" used to describe a forthright little woman. Originally "feist" was an onomatopoaeic word for a fart, then it became a term to describe a farting little lapdog, then transferred to a noisy yapping little woman who is now proud to be called feisty.
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