Wednesday, May 14, 2008

"Cold Comfort Farm" -- Inventive Terms

How was your success at determining which of Stella Gibbons' evocative terms were real and which were invented? Is "sukebind" in botany textbooks? "Pruning snoots" in The Farmer's Almanac? "Rorty" in the Oxford Dictionary of Modern Slang? And what the Hell is a "scranlet" "when it's at 'ome'" (to quote Mrs. Beetle.)

No comments: