Humorous English etymologies 2 Parson's nose

Parson's nose (n)

(Cookery) the fatty extreme end portion of the tail of a fowl when cooked. Also called the pope's nose and even the sultan's nose. It may eb a euphemism. Parson's nose, however, is from the notion that an English parson may 'have his nose up in the air', upturned like the chicken's rear end. The term must have been known as early as around 1400 AD, when a carpenter had been contracted to provide new choir stalls for St Mary's Church, Nantwich. The vicar was either slow to pay the artisan, or did not pay at all. In retaliation, on the last misericord in the stalls, the carpenter carved a bird with an image of that Vicar's face with protuberant nose as rump. The carving is still visible today.

Humorous English etymologies 1 Undertaker

Undertaker (n.)
Funeral director. In America a mortician.

c. 1400, "a contractor or projector of any sort," agent noun from undertake (v.). The specialised sense (1690s) emerged from funeral-undertaker. It is a euphemism. The little joke, of course, is that the undertaker takes the body and puts it six feet under ground.

Make war make peace

War against the devil is the only way to lasting peace.

South Walian words

On page 112 of the book English in Wales: Diversity, Conflict, and Change by Nikolas Coupland, and Alan Richard Thomas they have a list of English words from the south west common in Glamorganshire. I noticed the following as words we also used next door in Gwent or Monmouthshire - daps (plimsolls), mob (hide and seek game), nippy (cold), scag (catch thread of garment), stingy nettles (stinging nettles), tump (hillock), whimberry (bilberry), wisp (sty on eyelid), pikelet (muffin - although my mother would use the word for crumpets).

Fousty

The standard English word fusty means smelling stale, damp, or stuffy. In South Wales it is often pronounced fousty. That is certainly how my late mother always pronounced it. I seem to remember that she would use it for food that had become mildewed.

Talcum and spreed

My late mother was a great believer in talcum powder. She believed it was a great preventative against what she called spreed. Spreed appears to be a west country dialect word for chapped skin. Spreathed is the preferred Monmouthshire pronunciation. Spreazed is also found.

How to pronounce the word pedantic

 

I've just been checking out websites on how to pronounce the word pedantic. They all go for p'dantic but it would seem to me an emphasis on the first syllable - ped-antic - is not really such a bad idea and surely could not be ruled as wrong. Obviously something after the fashion of pedant-ic can't be right but I'm still sure ped-antic cannot be ruled out completely.

Christianity like a rugby team

True Christianity is a bit like a good rugby team - always looking backwards, while always going forwards

Regeneration - everywhere in the New Testament

 

"The idea of a fundamental change equal to a new birth is not something confined to one or two chapters of the New Testament. The idea is found in many places and a variety of illustrations are employed. ... It is clear that the Bible uses a variety of pictures to convey the idea that the Christian life starts with a radical change produced by God. ... washing, receiving a new heart or spirit, God’s law in the mind and on the heart, ... circumcision of the heart, ... a new birth, a new planting, a new creation, a resurrection, a passing from darkness to light, entering a new world, setting out in a new direction, Spirit baptism and being irresistibly drawn. God intends all these pictures to add to our understanding of regeneration and we do well to reflect on them. Is your understanding of new birth all that it should be?"

From my book What the Bible teaches about being born again, pp 65, 74

Regeneration - when and where the Spirit wills

 

"Jesus uses a picture that grows out of the fact that in Hebrew, Greek and other languages, the word for Spirit or spirit is also the word for breath or wind. This is because both are invisible. Just as ‘the wind blows wherever it pleases’, so the Spirit regenerates whom he will. In the same way that you cannot see the wind but you can see where it has been and what it does, so the Spirit works in people’s lives, and though his work is invisible to our eyes, the results are seen in changed lives. Just when and where the Spirit will work next we cannot definitely know."

From my book What the Bible teaches about being born again, p 63