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pillion

Posted: Fri Aug 19, 2005 8:12 am
by estoddard
Pronunciation: pil-yên • Hear it! http://www.alphadictionary.com/sounds/pillion.mp3

Part of Speech: Noun

Meaning: 1. A seat or cushion behind the rider of a horse, bicycle, or motorcycle; the 'peach perch' or 'flapper-bracket'. 2. A bicycle or motorcycle seat or saddle.
Notes: We would expect that someone who rides pillion on a horse or cycle would be called a pillionist but pillionaire dominated the 30s and is far more tantalizing. If you want to use today's word as a verb, you won't be the first: "Madeleine love pillioning with her boyfriend on weekends."

In Play: Pillions are common in countries that rely heavily on bikes and scooters, "Henk's dog, Spot, tired of riding pillion on the Harley, jumped off, and ran off into a field." Of course, the word pillionaire simply will not allow us to ignore it: "Thelma Lou was pillionaire extraordinaire to an over-the-hill motorcycle gang until she fell off a bike one day and cracked her helmet."

Word History: Today's Good Word comes to us either from Scottish Gaelic pillean, the diminutive of peall "rug", or from Irish Gaelic pillín, the diminutive of pell "rug". Both are akin to Latin pellis "animal skin" and English pelt. If you thought PIE [p] became [f] in Germanic languages, you are right. Old English had a word fell "skin, pelt", identical with Modern German Fell. (H. C. Bowman of the Agora fell upon this furry little word and was kind enough to share it with us.)

–Dr. Goodword, Alpha Dictionary

Re: pillion

Posted: Sat Aug 20, 2005 5:01 am
by M. Henri Day
...

Old English had a word fell "skin, pelt", identical with Modern German Fell. (H. C. Bowman of the Agora fell upon this furry little word and was kind enough to share it with us.)
This furry little word is also found in Modern (?) English, used in particular by certain authors (no names !) with an inordinate fondness for archaisms....

Henri

Re: pillion

Posted: Sat Aug 20, 2005 12:24 pm
by Stargzer
...

Old English had a word fell "skin, pelt", identical with Modern German Fell. (H. C. Bowman of the Agora fell upon this furry little word and was kind enough to share it with us.)
This furry little word is also found in Modern (?) English, used in particular by certain authors (no names !) with an inordinate fondness for archaisms....

Henri
Do you mean this definition:
fell[sup]2[/sup]

PRONUNCIATION: fĕl

ADJECTIVE: 1. Of an inhumanly cruel nature; fierce: fell hordes. 2. Capable of destroying; lethal: a fell blow. 3. Dire; sinister: by some fell chance. 4. Scots Sharp and biting.

IDIOM: at (or in) one fell swoop All at once.

ETYMOLOGY: Middle English fel, from Old French, variant of felon. See felon[sup]1[/sup].

OTHER FORMS: fellness —NOUN

Posted: Sat Aug 20, 2005 3:31 pm
by M. Henri Day
I was thinking more of the usage of writers who permit themselves such expressions as «unclean beast-fell», but then they must have felt that the beast with the fell, which obviously had been felled, had prior to that occasion been fell, indeed....

Henri