A kindly English teacher gave me a copy of “Strine” when I was young – presumably to get me to sit down and/or shut up, as many of my teachers found it pleasing to do. I had completely forgotten about it, until the other day, when it just popped back into my head. In the true spirit of Word du Jour, I thought I’d waste no time in sharing it with you. The book was first published in the mid sixties in Sydney and sadly, I don’t recall ever having seen a copy of it since my youth. Now, thanks to the wonders of the interweb, I found a copy reproduced here.
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Ah, the irresistible urge of a cheap sexual innuendo! My somewhat lax attempts at researching the origins of this particular form drew a big fat zero. My guess would be the music hall, vaudeville and burlesque shows of England and the US (back in the time when we shared a similar sense of humour). The basis of the gag is simple – puns, wordplay and, of course, a cheap sexual gag disguised as something more innocent. Regular readers will know what a fan of the Blackadder comedies I am, so I was particularly pleased with a wonderful non sequitur from Hugh Lawrie in Blackadder Goes Forth:”She was only the ironmonger’s daughter but she knew a surprising amount about fish as well”. Continue reading She was only… A shorter description today but I think an interesting one. The word shibboleth is of Hebrew origin and means “stream” or (more usually) “a plant containing grain”, such as corn or wheat. The word was originally very powerful, as it was used – according to a biblical story – by one Jephthah (catchy name) who was leader of a semitic tribe called the Gileadites to distinguish his enemies. The Gileadites had a bit of a fight with another tribe, the Ephraimites. Victorious in battle, they set up a blockade to catch their fleeing foes. I’m just guessing here but I imagine one semitic tribesman looked very much like another and it was difficult to know who the bad guys were. The one noticeable difference was that the Ephraimites lacked the sh sound in their language. They would stop a man at the blockade and make him say shibboleth – if he instead said ‘sibboleth’ he was in for a very bad day indeed. Here’s the passage in full: |
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