This quote carries a dual dedication: to Sara McPherson for this, and Raynor Ganan of the Ragbag for everything. Their independent preoccupations with animal nomenclature and taxonomy called to mind a book I read in high school, more than a decade ago: Cosmic Consciousness, by Richard Maurice Burke.
The sort of idiosyncratic work I am fortunate to have been given by my dad, Cosmic Consciousness was published in 1901 and billed as “A Study in the Evolution of the Human Mind.” It was provocative and grand and fascinating, and it influenced me greatly. But there was something specific I remembered about it:
The word felyshyppynge. In reflections on the nature of language, Burke discusses some deprecated collective nouns from English’s past, some of which were so amusing that despite having forgotten thousands of crucially important things since the late 90s, I’ve never forgotten that word.
In addition to those quoted above (emphasis on my favorites), he mentions the words used for preparing food:
“In like manner in dividing game for the table the animals were not carved, but a dere was broken, a gose reryd, a chekyn frusshed, a cony unlacyd, a crane dyspalyed, a curlewe unjointyd, a quayle wynggyd, a swanne lyfte, a lambe sholderyd, a heron dysmembryd, a pecocke dysfygured, a salmon chynyd, a hadoke sydyd, a sole loynyd, and a breme splayed.”
I would love for Raynor or Sara to arrange these in some delightful graphic for the betterment of us all; I would, but I have a felyshyppnge banging my door down and a hadoke which must be sydyd before we begin our meal. Excuse me.
