words

craft show haul: jitterbug sock yarn in popsicle colourway, touch yarns laceweight merino/mohair, and two pairs of addi lace needles.





annoucement!
new blog feature: word of the week. starting today. for the month of july the words will all be related in some way to things french, in honour of both bastille day and the tour de france knitalong.

this week's word:

harridan

[Generally supposed to be an alteration of F. haridelle an old jade of a horse (16th c. in Hatz.-Darm.); also, a gaunt ill-favoured woman (Littré); but connecting forms are not known.]

A haggard old woman; a vixen; ‘a decayed strumpet’ (J.): usually a term of vituperation.

a1700 B. E. Dict. Cant. Crew, Harridan, one that is half Whore, half Bawd. 1706 FARQUHAR Recruit. Officer V. vi, D'ye hear, d'ye hear, you plaguy harridan, how those bullets whistle! 1727 POPE Macer 24 And in four months a batter'd harridan. a1745 SWIFT Misc. Poems (1807) 57 The nymphs with whom you first began, Are each become a harridan. 1860 EMERSON Cond. Life, Consid. Wks. (Bohn) II. 426 This identical hussy was a tutelar spirit in one house, and a haridan in the other. 1865 Public Opinion 31 Dec. 714/1 The harpy and harridan of the establishment was punished.

(definition taken from Oxford English Dictionary online)


other examples of harridanical quotes? leave a comment!