Spot the frippet: galley.

Have you been slaving over a hot stove?

You probably have, for it's the season for feasts and festivities, and thus of the galley slave - that is, someone working very hard for no money and little thanks.

An easy spot, that.

The oldest sort of a galley was a ship, either of trade or war. These earliest galleys could be propelled by sails or oars, but later the word became particularly associated with ships rowed by slaves.


Abraham Willaerts. See the red wing-like oars?


Those galleys travelled far and wide, but never, if they could help it, galley-west, which is a lovely American term meaning knocked silly, dizzy, or out.

Later, cooking for a ship's crew being about as much fun as rowing a ship, a ship's kitchen became known as a galley, and now any long kitchen with cupboards along the sides is called a galley kitchen.

The association of the word galley with heat and hard work didn't stop there. It transferred itself to print foundries, and there a galley is a tray open at one end for holding type.

Spot the frippet: galley. This word comes from the Old French galie, from the Latin galea, from the Greek galaia. The expression galley-west comes from the English dialect colly-west, perhaps from a village in Northamptonshire called Collyweston. No one knows quite why Collyweston is anything to do with silliness, but in Tudor times to wear a coat Collywestonward meant to wear it sideways as a fashion statement.