WORLD WIDE WORDS           ISSUE 296          Saturday 20 July 2002
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Editor: Michael Quinion, Thornbury, Bristol, UK      ISSN 1470-1448
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Contents
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1. Turns of Phrase: Beanpole family.
2. Weird Words: Jobbernowl.
3. Beyond Words.
4. Q&A: Chip off the old block; Bells and whistles; Mortarboard.
5. Endnote.
6. Subscription commands.
7. Contact addresses.
1. Turns of Phrase: Beanpole family
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Historically, families have usually had more children than parents,
resulting in family trees that looked like pyramids. However, in
recent years, especially in countries like Britain and the US, the
number of children per generation has steadily gone down, while
life span has increased. This has led to a shape of family tree
that some researchers have likened to a beanpole - tall and thin,
with few people in each generation. The term "beanpole family" has
been around in the academic literature at least since 1987, but it
rarely appears elsewhere. A recent British report has brought it to
wider public notice, at least in the UK. Some researchers find it
too slangy and prefer the jargon term "verticalised" to describe
such families. Whatever term you prefer, specialists are sure that
the demographic shift is having a big effect on personal
relationships within the family and (for example) the role of
grandparents.
The rising divorce rate partly explains the growth of the
'beanpole' family. With almost one in two marriages ending in
divorce, many adults have at least two families, each with a single
child.
["Observer", May 2002]
Noting the rising number of so-called 'beanpole' families in
Britain (families with only one child), the report warns that a
child without siblings 'is starved of the companionship of family
members of their own age ... [leading to] greater social isolation,
with teenagers adopting a more selfish attitude to life'.
["Guardian", June 2002]
2. Weird Words: Jobbernowl
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A stupid person, a blockhead.
Unfortunately, this useful and effective insult has rather dropped
out of use in these mealy-mouthed times. The last excursion for it
that I can find is in the classic W C Fields film "The Bank Dick"
of 1940, in which the word occurs in a variant form in the line:
"Surely, don't be a luddie-duddie, don't be a moon-calf, don't be a
jabbernow, you're not those, are you?". Before that, it turns up in
one of the novels of Hall Caine in 1890, but even by then it seems
to have been rather rare.
It's from the old French "jobard", from "jobe", silly. That word
was then added to "noll", the top or crown of the head, the noddle.
The first sense was of a block-like or stupid-looking head, but was
soon extended to refer to the quality of the mind within.
"Jobbernowlism" is the condition or state of being a "jobbernowl",
or an act or remark that is especially stupid.
Careful how you use it: the recipient might be a subscriber!
3. Beyond Words
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I've been away at a heritage conference in Colchester these past
few days. On my way back, my eye was caught by this warning sign
posted above some steps at the local railway station:
Caution
Do not run on the stairs
Use the hand rail
4. Q&A
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Q. For my job I have to read American magazines concerning consumer
electronics, home systems, burglar alarms, etc. I very often come
across the expression "bells and whistles", which seem to relate to
equipment, accessories or features that are offered to the customer
as plusses but are not really indispensable for the device to work.
Is that right? And where does that funny phrase come from? [Herve
Castelain, France]
Q. You're right about the meaning of this phrase, which refers to
gimmicks - non-essential but often engaging features added to a
piece of technical equipment or a computer program to make it seem
more superficially attractive without enhancing its main function.
The phrase is actually quite modern and may be a product of the
American military. At least, one of its earliest appearances was in
an article in "Atlantic" in October 1982, which said it was
"Pentagon slang for extravagant frills". There's some evidence that
the term has actually been around since the 1960s, but the early
evidence is sparse.
Where it comes from is still a matter of learned debate. A literal
sense of the phrase appeared around the middle of the nineteenth
century, referring to streetcars, railways and steamships. Before
modern electronics, there were really only two ways to make a loud
warning noise - you either rang a bell or tooted a whistle. Steam
made the latter a real power in the land (anybody who has heard the
noisy out-of-tune calliope on the steamboat Natchez at New Orleans
will agree about its power, though less so about its glory). And at
one time "clang, clang, clang went the trolley" in large numbers of
American cities.
At least some early US railroad locomotives had both bells and
whistles, as this extract from an article in "Appleton's Journal"
of 1876 shows:
You look up at an angle of sixty degrees and see sweeping
along the edge of a precipice, two-thirds up the rocky
height, a train of red-and-yellow railway-cars, drawn by
two wood-burning engines, the sound of whose bells and
whistles seems like the small diversions of very little
children, so diminished are they by the distance.
Could it be that to have both bells and whistles was thought
excessive, a case of belt and braces, an unnecessary feature, a
frill?
Possibly. But it's more probable the slang sense of the term comes
from that close musical relative of the calliope, the theatre
organ. Extraordinary instruments such as the Mighty Wurlitzer
augmented their basic repertoire by all sorts of sound effects to
help the organist accompany silent films, among them car horns,
sirens, and bird whistles. These effects were called toys, and
organs often had "toy counters" with 20 or more noisemakers on
them, including various bells and whistles. In the 1950s, decades
after the talkies came in, but while theatre organs were still
common in big movie houses, these fun features must have been
considered no longer essential to the function of the organ but
mere fripperies, inessential add-ons.
It's possible the slang sense grew out of that. It got taken up
especially by the computing industry, perhaps because opportunities
to add them are so great.
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Q. The designation of "robes" for academic dress clearly comes from
its origin with the clergy in the Middle Ages. But what about
"mortarboards"? The best I could find was its origin in the 12th or
13th century clergy cap, but that was not square-shaped. Does
"mortarboard" refer to the guilds or is its origin more ancient?
A. The academic cap often called a "mortarboard" is quite ancient,
but that word for it only dates from the middle of the nineteenth
century (a less slangy way to identify it is to call it a
"square"). The literal mortar board is the wooden plate, usually
with a handle underneath, on which bricklayers carry small amounts
of mortar. A similar tool is used by plasterers, but they usually
call it a hawk.
What seems to have happened is that the similarity in shape between
the brickie's board and the academic cap led some wag, probably at
Oxford University, to apply the name of the one to the other. Our
first recorded use is in a book of 1853-6, "The Adventures of Mr.
Verdant Green, an Oxford Freshman" by a clergyman named Edward
Bradley, who wrote under the pen name of Cuthbert Bede (the names
of the two patron saints of Durham, where he went to school).
Verdant Green is a sort of undergraduate Pickwick and the book
recounts his adventures. This magisterial reprimand by a don
appears after one such escapade: "I will overlook your offence in
assuming that portion of the academical attire, to which you gave
the offensive epithet of 'mortar-board'; more especially, as you
acted at the suggestion and bidding of those who ought to have
known better".
After a slow start, the book became a huge success, selling more
than 200,000 copies in the next 20 years. Whether Mr Bradley
invented the slang term we may never know, but his book certainly
popularised it.
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Q. I got into a discussion about "chip off the old block" with
friends, and we are wondering if it had to do with sculpting,
jewelry making, woodworking, or none of the above. What does this
term mean, and where did it come from? [Vijay Renganathan]
A. The associations are with carpentry, and the block is definitely
made of wood.
The first form of the expression was "chip of the same block",
meaning that a person or thing was made of the same stuff as
somebody or something else, so from the same source or parentage.
An early example is in a sermon by Dr Robert Sanderson (at one time
Bishop of Lincoln), dated 1637: "Am not I a child of the same Adam
... a chip of the same block, with him?".
Later that century, another form is recorded "a chip of the old
block", which meant that somebody was the spitting image of his
father, or continued some family characteristic. At some point,
probably late in the nineteenth century, this was modified to "a
chip off the old block", which does nothing to change the sense,
but is the way it's now usually written or said.
5. Endnote
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"The sum of human wisdom is not contained in any one language, and
no single language is capable of expressing all forms and degrees
of human comprehension." [Ezra Pound, quoted by David Crystal in
the "Guardian", 25 October 1999]
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