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"If you have no better offer, do come," 11.52 helps put flesh on the bones of Martial’s Rome (‘you know Stephanus’ baths are right next door…’) and presents the city poet in a neighbourly light. It’s also a favourite of modern foodies in search of an unpretentious sample menu from ancient daily life.

The post ‘If you have no better offer, do come’: Martial’s guide to Roman dinner parties appeared first on OUPblog.

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The Adventures continue…and you can read more here: The Tales of Mr. and Mrs. Wren Filed under: Nature's design Tagged: birds, eggs, feeding, hatchlings, insects, nest, nesting, wrens

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By Anatoly Liberman

There is an almost incomprehensible number of English words for money and various coins. Some of them, like shilling, are very old. We know (or we think that we know) where they came from. Other words (the majority) surfaced as slang, and our record of them seldom goes beyond the early modern period. They belonged to thieves and counterfeiters’ vocabulary; outsiders were not supposed to make sense of all those boodles, crocards, firks, prindles ~ pringles, and wengs. Words are like people, and it is no wonder that some upstarts make their way into high society and become respectable. Among them are, for instance, buck “dollar,” quid “sovereign; guinea” (such a strange Latinism!), and stiver “a small coin.” Coins have always circulated far outside their countries of origin (Dutch stiver is one of them). Cant words, along with money in general, discovered the joys of globalization long before our time. The international community of criminals accepted them, and that is why so much “monetary slang” is “foreign-born” and why its etymology puzzles historical linguists.

A word lover can enjoy names without knowing their origin: they are like pets (mongrels are often much friendlier than purebreds). Who can resist the charm of scittick ~ scuttick ~ scuddick ~ scurrick and their cousins (or perhaps look-alikes) scat and squiddish? Boar, grunter, hog, and the afore-mentioned buck—aren’t they impressive-looking beasts? Money, as Mowgli said, are things that change hands and don’t become warmer in the process. Very true, but we are word hunters, not merchants, and today’s story is about the word oof, British slang for “money.” Its origin has been guessed, and there is every reason to be proud of the result.

I have once touched on the word oof, but, unfortunately, coupled oof with another word, whose provenance, although undiscovered, is quite different. Also, that post appeared on September 9, 2009, and hardly anyone remembers it. However, I do, because for my erroneous hypothesis I was hauled over the coals in a not very courteous manner, as Skeat would have put it (see the previous post), and the burns still smart. Below I will repeat part of what I said five years ago, for the context of the present essay is quite different from the one written in 2009.

The guessing game was played by amateurs. They were inspired by the famous Osborne trial (1892; of course, its fame faded long ago), at which the word oof was used more than once; this circumstance explains the date of the first letters on this subject sent to Notes and Queries (1893). By that time oof had been around for several decades but needed a push from outside to become public property. Some people fell into a trap. They knew the phrase oof bird “an imaginary provider of wealth.” Most likely, the phrase emerged as a joke and was coined under the influence of French œuf “egg,” with reference to the bird that lays golden eggs. Quite naturally (journalists like to say unsurprisingly in such cases), they concluded that oof is the English pronunciation of œuf. It did not bother them that no English speaker however atrocious his or her accent might be, would turn œuf (even if it is a solid golden œuf) into oof.

On the other hand, there was a man called William Hoof, a “wealthy railway contractor, who died in 1855, leaving upward of half a million sterling.” Hoof with its h dropped would have easily yielded oof. In the middle of the nineteenth century and much later, such wild conjectures filled the pages of many popular journals. But there were others, whose ideas were not only sensible but also correct. A correspondent to Notes and Queries, who identified himself by his four initials (S. J. A. F.; I am sure many readers knew who hid under those letters), remarked that in Low German there was the slang word ofti[s]ch “money.” “It has descended to its present low estate from certain semi-Bohemian circles.” He also cited the word oofless” penniless.” Soon after him Willoughby Maycock pointed out that the word in question was of Jewish origin and had its roots in London. Its etymon, he repeated, was the phrase ooftisch “on the table”: the stakes had to be put on the table before the game began. The word “was introduced… by the facetious columns of the Sporting Times, but not invented by that organ.” Money on the table would be an approximate analog of Engl. cash on the nail and especially of Russian den’gi na bochku “money on the barrel” (money on the barrel has some currency in English, especially, as it seems, in American English).

The great Walter Skeat found the noun spinuffen “money” (plural) in a Westphalian dictionary and derived oof from uffen (1899). Strange as it may seem, he disregarded (more probably, missed) the explanation offered six years earlier. His note made James Platt, Jun., a most remarkable student of word origins, to write in his rejoinder that it was as certainly courting failure to explain oof without reference to its full form ooftisch as it would be to attempt the derivation of bus and cab without taking into account omnibus and cabriolet. Skeat rarely conceded defeat gracefully and wrote to Notes and Queries again. No, he was not at all sure that spinuffen and ooftisch are unrelated, “for the latter, whether it represents ooft-isch or ooft-ich, may be suspected to be formed upon the base ooft.” He was wrong and never tried to defend his etymology again. The first edition of the OED recognized the Jewish ooftisch derivation, though, as is the case with pedigree (see again the previous post), without absolute certainty. All the later dictionaries followed the OED (in lexicographical work, followed means “copied”). Be that as it may, oof does seem to go back to ooftisch.

A small triumph! One insignificant “slangism” has emerged from its obscurity, but this is how the science of etymology progresses nowadays: by infinitesimal steps. Unlike “regular” words, slang comes from popular culture and the underworld; it is a product of the ludic spirit. In that area, researchers can seldom base their conclusions on precedent. Phonetic correspondences play little or no role in the development of slang. Words of allegedly Jewish origin are particularly dangerous, for time and again Hebrew and Yiddish are conjured up to account for the coinages (particularly, when it comes to crime and swindling) that have nothing to do with the life and language of the Jews. English slang depends on Yiddish to a much smaller extent than does German. But ooftisch lost its second element in England; so oof can be called English, especially because it rhymes with hoof (the oo in its source sounded like Engl. awe). Dictionaries mark oof as British slang. However, the word was not unknown in the United States, and The Century Dictionary has a good American citation.

Anatoly Liberman is the author of Word Origins And How We Know Them as well as An Analytic Dictionary of English Etymology: An Introduction. His column on word origins, The Oxford Etymologist, appears on the OUPblog each Wednesday. Send your etymology question to him care of [email protected]; he’ll do his best to avoid responding with “origin unknown.” Subscribe to Anatoly Liberman’s weekly etymology articles via email or RSS.

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Image credit: UK coins by Karen Bryan. CC BY-ND 2.0 via Flickr.

The post Small triumphs of etymology: “oof” appeared first on OUPblog.

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Just a little bunny fun for Easter!

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Is your freezer full of hot cross buns? Are you feeling bilious after over-eroding the stash of chocolate eggs you’ve had hidden for weeks from the kids? If so, you may already be over Easter. But wait. There’s more! While you won’t find a great deal of religious meaning in the following titles, they do bubble and burst with frivolity and interactive verve, perfect for sharing with your family, which for me, ticks at least one of my Easter boxes.

First egg out of the basket – Easter Egg Express by Susannah McFarlane and Caroline Keys, is part of the cute and clever Little Mates A-Z series. Unashamedly Australian, abundant with alliteration and more colour than you’d find in a rainbow, Little Mates rarely fail to deliver. Fortunately, thanks to the help of their bush mates, Easter bilbies Ellie and Eric deliver as well, just in time for an Easter extravaganza. Easter Egg Express epitomises Easter eggactly; egg hunts, egg painting, egg eating and eggceptionally tasty hot cross buns. Eggcellent! (Sorry for the lame yolks)

10 Hopping Bunnies by winning team, Ed Allen and Simon Williams, serves up more frantic fun for 3 year olds. As with other titles in the series, including 10 Smiley Crocs, this is a zany rendition of the popular ditty, Ten Green Bottles. Counting to ten has never been so energetic and hilarious. William’s illustrations race, hop, bound, swing and bounce across the pages in a riotous countdown that is never boring but plenty bonkers. There’s a touch of Graeme Base on every page too, as readers are encouraged to spot hidden numbers. Practical, merry good fun.

How about another well-known tune, now that your vocal chords are all limbered up? There was an Old Bloke who Swallowed a Bunny! by series duo P Crumble and Louis Shea, will keep you singing. It seems incredible that, that old bloke and lady are able to look at another morsel after stuffing themselves silly with stars, thongs, chooks, mozzies and spiders. But these non-sensical characters in this nonsense nursery rhyme appear to have plenty of life and room in them yet.

Our old bloke finds himself famished whilst on the farm. The usual gastronomic gobbling ensues until ‘kapow!’ farmyard calm is restored. Again, it’s the in-your-face, brighter than day illustrations that steal the show. Simultaneous bonsai stories blossom on every page guaranteeing repeated readings and plenty of contemplative pausing and pointing out. But that’s okay because ‘Crikey!’ it’s funny.

Finally, because Easter is slightly prone to exploitation, We’re Going on an Egg Hunt by Laine Mitchell and Louis Shea, is included in this fun and frivolous round-up for pre-schoolers. You’ll recognise the rhyme from the title and appreciate the vibrant illustrations accompanying the playful text as you sing along with the kids.

The look on our big-eyed, baby animal friends’ faces as they finally end their hunt in a choc-egg induced stupor is priceless; one we are all familiar with I’m sure. High energy plus high interactive potential = very morish. (There’s even a CD by Jay Laga’aia)

Bounce over here for more great Easter titles for young and old.

Scholastic Australia March 2014

 

 

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Quickly eggsecuted and puns intended!

Happy Happy, everyone!!!

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I did an Illustration Friday image for the word prompt, "Eye-Glasses" and posted it on my blog, then thought I'd rework it just a bit and post over here. Please check out the rest of the images posted on Illustration Friday. Good stuff, y'all!

Paula's Blog
Paula's Website

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Thought I'd put up some Easter-related items here, since we are into March. This is part of a licensing package I've been working on.

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To show your true colors…You have to come out of your shell!

A little bit of spring on your desktop… right click and save!

Happy April!

….. and please feel free to comment, I like to know you’re out there! :)

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Refreshing part of an old drawing as a warm-up exercise.

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I’m struggling today to get on task concerning certain stuff and I decided a creative diversion to mentally/emotionally refuel was in order. So I took the IF prompt to task and created 2 more. The Easter Bunny thing is the focal point again, but in a different style.

And then back in the cartoon style:

 

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Folksy drawings illustrate an updated classic nursery rhyme as a boy ventures through his farm and discovers where wool, honey, milk, eggs, and down come from. Click here to read my full review.

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The Red House Children’s Book Award is the only national book award in the UK voted for entirely by children and it’s super easy for you and any children you spend time with to get involved.

All the kids need to do is read all each book in the category (categories) of their choice and then vote, by ranking the books in order of preference. I’m getting the kids at my girls’ school voting and here’s how we’re running our sessions.

Every Friday afternoon I have a 1 hour slot with groups of 5-7 year olds where we read and craft and do whatever I can think of to showcase reading for pleasure, reading for joy. I’m currently using this slot to read all four shortlisted books in the Younger Children category ie picture book category. The shortlisted books in this category are:

Scruffy Bear and the Six White Mice by Chris Wormell (which I reviewed here)

Rollo and Ruff and the Little Fluffy Bird by Mick Inkpen

Peely Wally by Kali Stileman (which I reviewed here)

Don’t Worry Douglas by David Melling

You can buy all four books at discounted prices on the Red House website, here.

All these picture books are quite short picture books and so I’ve found it works just fine reading them all in one go with the 30 kids in my group. Normally after

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The senses are a vital source of knowledge about the objects and events in the world, as well as for insights into our private sensations and feelings. Below is an excerpt from Art and the Senses, edited by Francesca Bacci and David Melcher, in which Charles Spence, Maya U. Shankar, and Heston Blumenthal look at the ways in which environmental sounds can affect the perceived flavour of food.

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By F. Bailey Norwood and Jayson L. Lusk

 
After fighting each other for over a decade, the egg industry and the largest animal advocacy organization came to an agreement, one which will increase the welfare of egg-laying hens but also increase egg prices.  The United Egg Producers, under persistent pressure from the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), has agreed to transition hens out of battery cages and into enriched colony cages.  The HSUS certainly believes the higher welfare standards are worth the increase in egg prices, but do consumers agree?  My research says that when consumers are informed about the issue, yes, they applaud the move—even when they know higher egg prices will follow.

Most consumers do not wish to see farm animals crammed into small cages, but if they take the time to discover the source of their pork and eggs, these cramped animal cages are what they will see.  Chickens raised for egg production are placed in groups of 4-6 birds and raised their entire lives inside a cage so small that they cannot turn around without bumping into another chicken.  Spreading their wings is out of the question.  Sows (female hogs used for breeding) are confined even tighter, spending most of their lives in a stall so small the sow cannot even turn around.  There are more farm animal welfare issues than just space allotments.  Both layers and sows desire to forage for food, scratch or dig, socialize, and find comfortable places to rest.  All of these “behavioral” needs are neglected in the typical egg and pork production facility.  By transitioning from battery cages to enriched colony cages, the egg industry goes a long way towards meeting these space and behavioral needs.

Why are animal cages used in the first place, when the average person finds them disturbing?  In the competitive marketplace for food, farmers must employ confined production facilities to keep their costs low, because consumers generally emphasize low prices over animal welfare at the grocery store.  Yet, at the same time, consumers who purchase food from so-called “factory farms” donate money to the HSUS, who uses some of this money to ban the same animal cages used to produce most eggs and pork.  In surveys, referendums, and economic research, consumers consistently support the banning of the same cramped animal cages used to produce the food they purchase.

One reason the farm animal welfare debate cannot be quickly resolved is that consumers have difficulty resolving the issue for themselves.  They want livestock to be treated kindly, but they also want low food prices, and it is difficult to reconcile the tradeoff between animal well-being and food prices in the grocery store and/or in referendums.  For these reasons, the farm animal welfare debate is a messy, contradictory debate—the trademark of a democratic process.

Although consumer attitudes can be elusive to identify, research has revealed a few facts.  The most important fact to stem from consumer research is that, when consumers are informed about how layers and sows are raised, they consistently state they are willing to pay the higher food prices that would result from better animal care.  This does not imply that regular grocery store shoppers will reflect this level of concern in their willingness-to-pay for food, because the regular grocery store shopper is uninformed. 

However, the farm animal welfare debate is largely a policy debate.  Should we ban colony cages for layers?  Should we ban gestation stalls for sows?  It would seem prudent to base policy on the opinions of informed consumers, as opposed to uninformed consumers.  When employing this prudent procedure, there is little doubt that the ban on cramped animal cages occurring in the European Union and US states is justifi

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Here are two wildly different Eastery images to at least acknowledge the holiday. Neither is new, but its the best I can do.

This was a card for NobleWorks a while back. I actually re-purposed the image from another larger illustration I did, adding the grass and a few other Eastery touches.

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This was from Scholastic magazine Lets Find Out several years ago in their April issue. I like the little octopus the best.

The challenge was making them look appealing for 5 year olds and not creepy.

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Munro, Roxie. 2011. Hatch! Tarrytown, NY: Marshall Cavendish.

Whether your reader is currently interested in birds or not, he will be after the teaser on the very first page! 

Did You Know?
There are birds much taller than any human being, there are birds that can fit on a child's palm.  Birds can make nests that weigh as much as a car or are smaller than a walnut. ... birds ... can fly as high as a jet plane (eight miles up)...

Who wouldn't want to keep reading to find out? All answers are revealed within the pages of Hatch!

Excellent for participatory reading, the pages follow a particular format.  First, a detailed painting of eggs on a white background with the query,

Can you guess whose eggs these are?

Next, the following page offers several clues inside a colored "bubble" that mirrors the shape of the eggs on the facing page.

...A Major League Baseball team adopted its name and colors from this bird. ...  

Finally, in a detailed two-page spread, the bird is revealed in its native habitat.  Munro's pen and watercolor paintings are detailed and accurate in color and scale.  More facts are included in the same artfully placed "bubble," and adding to the fun is a text box inset at the bottom of the page, offering a chance to look and find other creatures,

also in this woodland habitat: coyote, red-tailed hawk, porcupine, turtle.

Hatch! is a big book - more than 11" square.  For that reason, a life-sized depiction of the world's largest egg (the ostrich's, at up to 7" long), would and does fit easily on a single page.  My only wish is that all of the egg paintings were to scale. While it's interesting to see the detailed coloration of each egg type (which admittedly would be difficult to show on the pea-sized hummingbird egg), it's somewhat confusing to see a 5 1/2" inch egg described on the facing page as "about the size of a pea." However, this reflects only my own opinion, which may not be shared by others and certainly does not detract from Hatch!, which I predict will not only be a crowd-pleaser, but may also hatch a few bird-watchers!

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[With apologies to readers in the Southern Hemisphere...] Are you looking for a little sprinkling of colour and humour to help you get through these last days of winter before spring arrives? If so, Peely Wally, the debut picture book from Kali Stileman may be just the thing you’re looking for.

Peely Wally is a very happy bird. She has just laid an egg and is proud and thrilled. But in her excitement at the impending arrival of her baby, she bounces so hard on her twig that the egg rolls off and away. The poor egg tumbles down here, over there, only just avoids being eaten and eventually, with the help of all the neighbouring animals, survives the adventure and is returned to a much relieved Mum.

But then the most exciting thing of all happens… the egg cracks, and… well I’m sure you can guess what happens, but it’s nevertheless lovely, heartwarming and fun to reveal.

This simple tale is great fun for the younger crowd. There’s just the right amount of adventure, a suggestion of disaster, a reassuring rescue, and a great deal of love and care. But it’s the vibrant illustrations which will really get the kids coming back for more. Created in collage style, inevitably (and successfully) reminiscent of Eric Carle, they zing with colour and texture.

What’s more, I suspect that many kids won’t just listen to the story, they will actually play with this book: A dotted line across every page indicates the path of the egg and my kids love tracing this with their finger while the slopes and loop-the-loops encourage me to read the text in an even more sing-song fashion than normal.

Although I’d wholeheartedly recommend this book to any young family I bumped into in the bookshop, two tiny question marks hang over the book for me. First, the eponymous title. Personally, I like it – it suggests something fun and unusual. But I do wonder if some might be turned off by it (and perhaps the editors have thought this too – the book is being released outside of the UK under the title “Roly-Poly Egg”). It puts me in mind of another book I enjoy reading with the girls, but which I’ve heard hasn’t been very successful because of its title – The Terrible, Greedy Fossifoo by Charles Fuge.

Second, as this book will be a hit with the youngest of readers, and contains a wonderful lift-the-flaps page at the denouement of the story, it really deserved to be published on much more robust paper or even as a board book. The flaps, such as they are, will soon be torn, for they are thin and flimsy. This is such a shame for instead of letting my kids excitedly unveil what’s behind the flaps, I’m nervous about pages being ripped and this somewhat diminishes the story’s final impact.

However, put aside these two tiny gripes and what you have here is the perfect nonreligious book for Easter, an ideal gift for Mums-to-be and a peppy pick-me-up tonic to banish the winter blues. A treat for the preschool crowd, and a book that’s received a big thumbs up from both my girls. Do look

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Ahh yes! My ideal breakfast on a typical Saturday morning. But nowadays, this type of meal would only be served on special occasions (especially after a very heavy night of drinking) since it’s not exactly the healthiest of combos to start off with. (Yes in our household canned and processed meat deserves a special occasion) But gosh darnit, there’s nothing like waking up to the smell of rice, spam, and eggs (and hot sauce)  in the morning!

What’s your ideal breakfast?

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**For a last chance to win the book of your choice of those reviewed on Playing by the book click here!**

Last Easter we discovered the Mexican tradition of Cascarones – filling blown eggs with confetti and then smashing them on Easter Sunday. We had so much fun that I knew it was going to become a tradition for us, and sure enough this year we made cascarones again.

1. In the run up to Easter I blew (rather than cracked) as many eggs as possible when I was using eggs in cooking – last year we only had 6 eggs, this year I knew we’d need many more, given how much fun we had.

Actually I developed a technique for getting the egg out of its shell without blowing, and without making two holes – I held the egg so the less pointy end of it was upright, then I firmly but not too forcefully pricked the top of the egg with a metal skewer. This created a little hole and from there I was able to “pick out” bits of shell, creating a hole large enough (about the size of a 50p coin) for the entire egg to fall out of, keeping its shape – very useful when I was doing fried eggs!

2. The girls prepared the filling for the eggs. In addition to some shop brought confetti we made our own by using a hole punch and some coloured paper, and also by taking small pieces of tissue paper and rolling them up into tiny balls (the size of a pea).

All our various confetti, plus a load of glitter was added into the egg shells by the girls. If you have blown your eggs the conventional way and there are two holes in the egg, simply put in a larger piece of tissue paper first, to cover the smaller hole and prevent the glitter from falling out. Last year we also added rice which we had dyed using food colouring and I would recommend this as it gives the eggs some weight – not too much, but just enough to make smashing the eggs a little easier for little people.

3. Once the eggs were full of glitter/confetti we sealed them. I put a ring of glue around the large(r) hole in the egg and the girls covered this with a piece of tissue paper. Tip: cut up some squares of tissue paper ahead of time as my girls found it a little difficult to tear the tissue paper into squarish pieces – instead they kept getting strips of tissue paper, as that’s the way the paper easily tears.

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