prettygoodword (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
prettygoodword) wrote2008-01-07 07:30 am
prettygoodword) wrote2008-01-07 07:30 am
locofoco
locofoco - n., an early match.
As in the rub-it-against-a-surface-and-it-lights -- also called in those days a Lucifer, which gives you an idea of how bright they flared. The origin of this name is more obscure, but seems to have been a trade name coined by combining loco- from locomotive, as in self-moving + Italian fuoco, fire.
The political faction named after this, I leave to the students of American history to discover on their own.
---L.
As in the rub-it-against-a-surface-and-it-lights -- also called in those days a Lucifer, which gives you an idea of how bright they flared. The origin of this name is more obscure, but seems to have been a trade name coined by combining loco- from locomotive, as in self-moving + Italian fuoco, fire.
The political faction named after this, I leave to the students of American history to discover on their own.
---L.
no subject