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  • From: gardenlit@aol.com
  • To: gwl-g@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [gwl-g] Garden linguistics - godwottery
  • Date: Tue, 18 Oct 2005 14:38:03 -0400

 Greetings,
 
I thought you might be interested in this definition of garden style, new to me, maybe not to you!
 
Apparently I have a lot of godwottery in my garden and it pleases me a lot :)
 
Sally
 
Sally Williams
Editor,, Garden Literature Index
EBSCO Publishing
10 Estes Street
Ipswich, MA 01938
Tel. (978) 356-6500 ext. 465
Fax (978) 356-9371
 
-----Original Message-----
From: Wordsmith [mailto:wsmith@wordsmith.org]
Sent: Tuesday, October 18, 2005 12:04 AM
To: linguaphile@wordsmith.org
Subject: A.Word.A.Day--godwottery
 
This week's theme: words about words.
 
godwottery (god-WOT-uhr-ee) noun
 
   1. Gardening marked by an affected and elaborate style.
 
   2. Affected use of archaic language.
 
[From the line "A garden is a lovesome thing, God wot!" in a poem by Thomas Edward Brown (1830-1897).]
 
   Now here is a word with a dual personality. Poet T.E. Brown unwittingly
   helped coin it when he wrote a poem describing his garden filled with all
   that came to his mind: grotto, pool, ferns, roses, fish, and more.
 
   And when he needed a word to rhyme with the line "Rose plot," he came up
   with "God wot!" He used "wot", an archaic term that's a variant of wit
   (to know), to mean "God knows!" and it stood out among other contemporary
   words in the poem.
 
   If you wish to create your own godwottery, we recommend: sundials, gnomes,
   fairies, plastic sculptures, fake rockery, pump-driven streams, and
   wrought-iron furniture. A pair of pink flamingos will round it out nicely.
 
-Anu Garg (gargATwordsmith.org)
 
  "And an important thing about all this godwottery -- as Anthony Burgess
   calls it -- is that all types and classes embrace it."
   Paul Fussell; The Great War and Modern Memory; Oxford University Press;
   2000.
 
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............................................................................
Don't judge men's wealth or godliness by their Sunday appearance. -Benjamin Franklin, statesman, author, and inventor (1706-1790)
 
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