Tuesday, March 25, 2008

gloppened

Bonnie got me this great day-at-a-time calendar for my desk at work. Each day I have a new word or phrase from forgotten English. Today's is "gloppened."

The word means (or did so once upon a time) surprised.

The following is the anecdotal account that accompanies this word on my calendar:

Blessing the Flour
A reenactment of this ancient custom takes place near Limerstone, on the Isle of Wight, each year on this date. The ritual distribution of flour is linked to the Tichborne Dole, a charity initiated in 1150. It seems that Sir Roger Tichborne ruled the House of Tichborne with little compassion. But in the spirit of Lady Godiva, his kindhearted wife, Lady Mabella, who lay dying, wished to provide the local poor with a cushion in the event of a bad harvest. In response to her request, stingy Sir Roger mockingly
offered to set aside a parcel of farmland for the poor if she could circumscribe it while a stick was burned to mark time. To his horror and surprise, she fell to her knees and pitifully crawled out a twenty-three-acre tract, still known as "The Crawls," in the allotted period. She then pronounced a curse on any Tichborne descendant who failed to honor this pledge, and promptly died.
That sure would have gloppened me.

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