rhyming-ware

[prettygoodword]

It's Forgotten English Friday!


rhyming-ware - Composition in rhyme; poetry. —John Jamieson's Etymological Scottish Dictionary, 1808


A quick search finds a couple uses by Burns as well as other Scotts writers, which leads one to wonder if usage ever crept south. In context, it usually refers to occasional verse tossed off for social or epistolary purposes. Because of this, you get a bonus word:


cutler's poetry - Doggerel verse; from the lines formerly engraved on knife blades. Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice (1596) —Albert Hyamson's Dictionary of English Phrases, 1922


Per Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, "Knives had, at one time, a distich inscribed on the blade by means of aqua fortis." Shakespeare's use is in act V, scene I:

GRATIANO: About a hoop of gold, a paltry ring
      That she did give me, whose posy was
      For all the world like cutler's poetry
      Upon a knife, 'Love me, and leave me not.'

---L.

Comments

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

How did I not know about cutler's poetry before!

What a concept!

And a knife blade that says "Love me, and leave me not"--I have never ever heard a line beg for a story harder than that!

--hmm, though I realize now it's the ring, not the knife, that had that inscription.

Still, imagine if the knife did!

[stillnotbored.livejournal.com]

cutler's poetry

Oh, I do love that idea. What a detail for a novel. A way to flirt, to pass secret messages, to plot rebellion or break someone's heart. *g*

[prettygoodword.livejournal.com]

I'm thinking of just how enriching it would be as a cultural detail, for worldbuilding a fantasy novel. Especially if you're willing to commit crummy knife-verse for the sake of versimilatude

Roses are red, violets are blue
Keep me sharp and I'll cut true

---L.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

If a knife made this request of me, I'd honor it.