784-1: Feedback, Notes and Comments

Quinion In my Weird Words piece last week I briefly discussed the origin of quire. John Davies wrote, “When I delivered the Coventry Evening Telegraph as a lad in the 1950s, the papers arrived at the shop in quires, but of 26 not 24. This was explained to me at the time as being the equivalent of the baker’s dozen, a way of giving the newsagent an extra discount. I was told it was standard in the newspaper industry. None of my dictionaries, including the OED, mentions that usage.”

Hat-dropping Following last week’s piece, Michael Templeton noted another story about the origin of at the drop of a hat, the dropping of a hat as a starting signal for a duel (other sources suggest the dropping of a handkerchief instead). He found this dismissed in an issue of the delightfully named US publication The Great Round World and What is Going On in It, dated 1898. The author very reasonably pointed out that duellists waiting to exchange fire were unlikely to want to turn away from their opponents to watch for a visual signal.

Bolshie An aside in this piece explained bolshie as rather dated slang. This was challenged by Suzanne Earley, who pointed out that it may be so in Britain but it “remains common usage in Australia — someone is bolshie, I’m in a bit of a bolshie mood — interchangeable with stroppy for women.”

Sic! sicced! It is a minor sadness when, having produced some 1,700 words in the last issue, the one that gains the most responses is my misspelling of Colombia in the Sic! section. I can only be glad that nothing more serious was found. Clark Stevens seems to know my readership: “Maybe something from Flanders and Swann’s At the Drop of a Hat will cheer you up after those who would criticize at the drop of a hat get done belaboring you for Columbia.”

Voting World Wide Words has been nominated in the Mailys, the LSOFT Choice Awards. As the contest is organised as monthly heats, this is my last chance to ask you to vote to ensure we win the April one. The rules allow you to do so every day if you wish.