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Tuesday 13 May 2014

Thing Probably Not To Do Today: be wrathful.

Some things are absolutely infuriating.

Some things just have to be stopped.

So...what things are they, then?

The trouble is that wrath and a clear-head don't usually go together.

Wrathful people are jolly dangerous, we all know that, but how can we tell who is most likely to be overtaken by wrath (it's pronounced roth, by the way, although there are some very ancient people around who still say rawth)?

Well, it's the hair.

Yes, I know that red-haired people have a reputation for being hasty, but it's not the colour of a person's hair that's the signal for a dangerous temper. Well, it wasn't when the word wrath was first made up, anyway.

Think of the angriest people you know? Do they have something in common about their hair?

No?  

No. Nor do the ones I know.

Ah well.

Thing Probably Not To Do Today: be wrathful. This word comes from the Old English wrǣththu (look at that, a double th!) and is related to the Old High German reid, which means curly haired.

File:Wenceslas Hollar - Man with thick curly hair (State 2).jpg
Artist: Wenceslas Hollar (I know it says Leonardo da Vinci, but Wenceslas Hollar produced the picture. Presumably that's Leonardo's portrait.).
 
Oil painting representing Puck as a baby with pointed ears and curly blonde hair sitting on an enormous mushroom in a forest. He holds a small posy and grins mischievously.
This curly-haired Puck by Joshua Reynolds looks harmless enough, though.




2 comments:

  1. I wouldn't want to see a front-on of that portrait!
    I would never have guessed it was of Leonardo, but he sure looks wrathful.
    Thanks for the cute Puck to take away that creepy feeling!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Having explored further, I don't think that can be Leonardo, after all. I think it might be a copy of one of his drawings. Leonardo seems to have looked more like Gandalf in one of his mellower moods.

      Still, whoever the bloke is, he is curly and wrathful, isn't he.

      Delete

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