Word We Never Use Anymore of the Day/This Day in Literary History

Tutty; Gross, irritable.
                    - Thomas Steinberg's Dialect and Folk-Lore of Northamptonshire, 1851


This Day in Literary History
On this day in 1667 Jonathan Swift was born in Dublin, the exact location seemingly pregnant with significance: a few blocks from St. Patrick's Cathedral, where Swift would be Dean; almost in the backyard of Dublin Castle, representing the Englishness he would both covet and skewer; the specific address, 7 Hoey's Court, almost perfect for perhaps the most famous scoffer in literature.

Word We Never Use Anymore of the Day/This Day in Literary History

Obering; An inkling of something important, yet thought a secret.
                    - John Mactaggart's Scottish Gallovidian Encyclopedia, 1824


This Day in Literary History
On this day in 1811, a notice appeared in the Richmond, Virginia Inquirer asking for donations in aid of Eliza Poe, a young actress now "lingering on the bed of disease and surrounded by her children." Though two-year-old Edgar would be rescued by the Allan family, the life of poverty, abandonment and hand-outs so familiar to his mother would eventually return to stay.

Word or Phrase We Never Use Anymore of the Day (With a New Feature!)

Signaturist; One who holds the 'doctrine of signatures'...by which it was formerly supposed (a plant's) nature or medical use was pointed (out).
                    - Joseph Worcester's Dictionary of the English Language, 1881


This Day in Literary History
On this day in 1582 William Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway (no, not that Anne Hathaway) married, or perhaps just paid for a bond giving them the right to do so. The facts are scanty, but we know that the groom was eighteen years old, the bride was twenty-six, and their first child, Susanna, was baptized six months later. There seems no way of knowing, but more than one biographer thinks that all this adds up to Shakespeare in Trouble rather than Shakespeare in Love.

My Apologies for the Lack of Updates...

The funny thing about writers is you'll never know when they're going to vanish in to exile, nor for how long. On the other hand, you'll never know when they return out of the darkness that is writer's block for something new.

But let us make a pact, you and I, my small yet loyal readership. I will keep writing, and you will keep reading, and the number of devotees will continue to expand. This is my mission, and I choose to accept. See you on the literary fore-front.

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.5