As I continue collecting weird words in my regular reading, I recently came upon dogsbody — which, it turns out, has nothing to do with dogs. It reminded me of alewife, which is not related to wife — and likewise fishwife, which is only secondarily connected to fish.
I began to think what other selections on my massive list would fall into a category we might call “words that don’t mean what you think.”
After culling about 40, I noted that many — like those above — are plants or animals; or they have a creature in the name. So we’ll save those for the future, and in the meantime, here’s a handful of oddball terms that betray our assumptions about what they actually mean:
Bildungsroman (BILL-doongs-row-mahn, noun [pronounced with the oo in good]) – While it sounds like some sort of architecture (perhaps from the era of the Caesars), this actually refers to any novel about the growth of a young protagonist — in other words, a “coming of age” story, like Great Expectations, Jane Eyre, Huckleberry Finn or The Catcher in the Rye.
Borrowed from German (and for this reason, sometimes capitalized), this word is related to “building” — in the sense of forming, erecting or constructing (i.e., growth). Meanwhile, roman is German for novel; it can also be found in such lesser-used terms as roman a clef and roman noir (like film noir, but in book form).
Bumf (BUMF, noun) – According to the worthy but idiosyncratic Collins English Dictionary, this weird word means “superfluous documents, forms, publicity material, etc.” It is British slang and can also mean — in a secondary definition comically related to the first — toilet paper.
There is some disagreement on whether this term originates from the sense of “worthless or idle” (i.e., lazy bum) — or the other kind of bum, on which one would use… well, a piece of bumf, I guess.
Dundrearies (dun-DREER-eez, noun) – Seeming to combine the common word dreary with the lesser-known dun (a brownish-gray color), this must surely mean something sad, somber, depressing, etc. But no; it is rather a term for long whiskers or sideburns without a beard — i.e., muttonchops. And like that latter word, it is always plural. (In other words, there is no such thing as a “dundreary.”)
According to dictionary.com, this unusual word comes from the name of a character who sported these — one Lord Dundreary in Tom Taylor’s 1858 play Our American Cousin.
Hoplite (HOP-lite, noun) – With its modern-sounding suffix, this comes across a recent word, perhaps referring to something swift, jumpy or low in calories. But it is actually a rather old term for “a heavily armed foot soldier of ancient Greece” (from the terrific Random House College Dictionary). Its origin is in the Greek word hoplon — a piece of armor, particularly a shield.
Pigsney (PIGZ-nee, noun) – Long-ago term for sweetheart or darling, esp. a female; it can also mean “eye.” I have not been able to clarify its origin, but in any case, it is now “archaic” or “obsolete,” and thus longer known or used.
Thank God.
Pot Liquor (pot LICK-er, noun) – In these columns, I try to limit my selections to single words; but I couldn’t resist this phrase — which I first encountered in To Kill a Mockingbird, where Jem tells his younger sister that their father, Atticus Finch, “loves pot liquor better’n any man I ever saw” (Ch. 23). At first, one thinks this must be some sort of intoxicating substance, but of course that doesn’t fit with Mr. Finch’s well-known character.
Here, the “liquor” is simply a liquid — while the “pot” is an actual cooking vessel. So pot liquor is the tasty broth in which meat or vegetables have been cooked.
Trencherman (TREN-chur-man, noun) – Sounds like somebody who digs ditches, yes? But it’s actually a heavy eater — someone with, you might say, a hearty appetite. Trencher is an obsolete word meaning food or good eating; but you can hardly help thinking of somebody “digging in,” right?
As I said, in prepping this column, I had actually picked out several dozen of these “words in disguise.” But as usual, we are out of space after covering a mere handful.
Oh, well; at least I’ve got a theme for the next few weeks. Those future columns hope to include boomslang, niblick, lickerish, ho-dad, pantechnicon and the truly priceless pissasphalt.
See you then.
