This blog is for everyone who uses words.

The ordinary-sized words are for everyone, but the big ones are especially for children.



Sunday 4 January 2015

On The 10th Day of Christmas: lords a-leaping. Sunday Rest.

I don't like words that end in an -ord sound very much.

It might be because my surname used to be Ward, and almost everyone used to hear it as Wood unless you elongated the vowel until you sounded like a dyspeptic cow.

Bored, board, cord, ford, hoard, sawed...it's a good job that word rhymes with bird, herd and curd or I might not have ended up where I am today...

...hmm...make that possibly a good thing...

Anyway, today is Sunday and so it's time for a rest. Many lords understand this. Indeed, although there are apparently ten lords a-leaping today The Lords* themselves are certainly not a-leaping anywhere: in fact they went off on holiday on the 17/12 and they won't be back until 6/1/15.

So what is it with all the leaping? I mean, after all those New Year celebrations you'd think that was the last thing you'd want to do was...

...ah.

Of course, the English language gives us the answer in one of its commonest expressions: drunk as a lord.

As anyone who's been to Trafalgar Square in London at this time of year knows, leaping into rivers and fountains when inebriated is rather a tradition.

I just hope the lords' have lots of warm blankets at their castles. I'd hate them to catch cold.

10-lords-a-leaping

Word Not To Use Today: lord. This word comes from the Old English hlāford, bread keeper.

*The Lords is Britain's second House of Parliament. It's made up, bizarrely, of lords and ladies (none elected and few there by reason of heredity) who are basically the wisest possible (though, sadly, not always wise) folk from all sorts of walks of life - industry, charities, civil service, army, law, churches, politics, newspapers, science, the arts. Yes, it's a crazy system, but it has two great advantages: it means that most of The Lords aren't politicians; and it works.


No comments:

Post a Comment

All comments are very welcome, but please make them suitable for The Word Den's family audience.