lousy and pelerine and pelisse and perfusion and peri and periapt and perique and peripeteia

911-920 II

Bill Long 5/13/06

Beginning with Lousy; then Back to the "Pe's"

The evolution of the word "lousy" shows us how a word, first attested as "filled with lice" could soon take wings, unlike the lice themselves, and become associated with things dirty, low, contemptible and poor. Let's begin this essay with that evolution. As early as 1377 we have the phrase: "With a hode on his hed a lousi hatte above." And, the meaning of "lousy" as "full of lice" continued unabated. From 1532, we have the following: "There be horses that wyll be lowsy, and it cometh of povertie, colde and yll kepynge." A sentence that might make you hestitate to entrust yourself to the care of mid-17th century physicans is from 1652: "Some authors say, the eating of them [figs] makes people lousy." You get the picture.

As early as Chaucer (mid 1380s), however, we have attestations for "lousy" to mean, as the OED fully says: "dirty, filthy, obscene. Also as a general term of abuse: Mean, scurvy, sorry, vile, contemptible. Also inferior, poor, bad; ill; in low heath or spirits." Quite a buffet there, don't you think? I love the 1532 quotation from Thomas More's book The confutacyon of Tyndales answere. "He loveth her with suche a lewde lowsye love, as the lewde lousy lover in lechery loveth himself." And now, I am sure you want to know how many pecks of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked. For the next hundred or so years the term seems to have been used mostly in an economic sense. "It is no upright conclusion to say that whatsoever is long laboured, is lowsie and not worth a straw," or "And to discredit me before Strangers; for a lousie, paltry sum of Mony?" But it gradually could be used as a word of general application for anything that was dissatisfying. An indication of this is an 1849 quotation: "I wish I could never heard the word lousy again. I am willing to be that Tommy Plunkett uses it fifty times a day, but he is no worse than the others. It is 'lousy' this and 'lousy' that. The rain is lousy, the trail is lousy, the bacon is lousy, and Gus Thorp, losing in the card game, has just said that he has had a lousy deal." Thus, by the 20th century, lousy could be a term expressing general discontent with anything in life. I think I will swear off the term for Lent 2007.

Back to the "Pe's"

We have been taken pretty far afield, but let's rush back to the dictionary with the words pelerine, pelisse, perfusion, peri, periapt, perique and peripeteia. The first two come from the history of clothing or costumes. Pelerine, meaning a cape or mantle, usually of lace or silk with ends meeting at a point in front, was first attested in English in 1744. The OED is uncertain whether the word originated in France or England, but the 1744 quotation has: "Her neck suffers for it, and confesses, in scarlet blushes..: this misfortune, however, she conceals under a handkerchief of pelerine, and high tucker."

This is a picture of a modern pelerine. The web site describes it as follows: "This small, circular, lacey cape with a pointed neckline, begins at the neck and is worked down (top-down). The idea of a short cape or Pelerine, comes from history - our country & others. It could be described as a wide collar or cape, which many times were worn over a ladies' dress at the end of her day. It added some style, plus warmth and made a simple dress more elegant." Very nice.

A pelisse (puh-LEES), which could also refer to an ecclesiastical cassock or fur-lined mantle, was most familiar beginning in the 18th century as an outer garment for women. From 1755 we have the following: "I don't know what you mean by a pompadour, unless it is what we call in this part of the world a pelisse; which in plain English is a long cloak made of satin or velvet, black or any colour; lined or trimmed with silk, satin, or fur, according to the fancy." Here is an interesting essay on fashion history, by Pauline Weston Thomas, which differentiates among the pelisse, paletot and pardessus (the latter two don't appear in the Collegiate). Ms. Thomas' article neatly gets us into the history not only of these three garments, with hints also at the Redingote, and also tells us how the history of sleeves affected the nature of the outer garments worn. For example, a fact I didn't know (and I bet you didn't either), was that around 1830 the introduction of the large "gigot" sleeve affected the style of outer garments. There is a nice picture of a "gigot sleeve," defined as a sleeve that is full at the shouler and upper arm but then tapers so that it is fitted at the wrist (This is appropriately known also as the "leg o'mutton" sleeve), here.*).

[*I didn't know there were this many types of sleeves. Bishop, Cap, Dolman, Fitted, Gauntlet, Gibson, Gigot (Leg O'Mutton), Poets, Pointed and Puff. Almost makes me want to go into the bridal business.]

Conclusion

Let this suffice for another essay, even though I seem to be moving through the dictionary at the speed of glacial encroachment.

1859