• hurdy-gurdy •
Pronunciation: hêr-di-gêr-di • Hear it!
Part of Speech: Noun
Meaning: 1. A medieval stringed instrument played by cranking a wheel that rotates beneath a row of strings, then depressing keys to bring the strings in contact with the wheel. 2. A barrel organ, which is also played by turning a crank.
Notes: The nitty gritty of the hurdy-gurdy is that it is a rhyming compound with a plural, hurdy-gurdies, and not much else in terms of derivative relations. An adjective hurdy-gurdyish has been used a few times to refer to music and to someone who looks like the stereotypical hurdy-gurdy player.
In Play: The unfortunate fact of the matter is that the crank on the hurdy-gurdy lowers it in the esteem of music lovers: "Yes, I consider hip-hop to be music; not as good as hurdy-gurdy music, but music." Its reputation was not enhanced by the barrel organ, often referred to as a hurdy-gurdy in the first half of the 20th century. To hear a bit of hurdy-gurdy music, click here.
Word History: Today's Good Word is another rhyming compound, like willy-nilly, shilly-shally, and Humpty-Dumpty. It probably was influenced by an older word, no longer used, hirdy-girdy "uproar, disorder", a variant of hiddy-giddy "whirling, confusion", itself a corruption of an earlier heady + giddy. Rhyming compounds are always fun; that is why we find so many in English. They also reflect the close relation between language and music, as I point out in the essay linked to rhyming compound above. (Let us not dilly-dally, shilly-shally, or twiddle-twaddle in conveying our gratitude to the person known only as Grogie in the Alpha Agora, who delivered today's Good Word to us lickety-split.)
HURDY-GURDY
- Dr. Goodword
- Site Admin
- Posts: 7502
- Joined: Wed Feb 02, 2005 9:28 am
- Location: Lewisburg, PA
- Contact:
HURDY-GURDY
• The Good Dr. Goodword
- Slava
- Great Grand Panjandrum
- Posts: 8229
- Joined: Thu Sep 28, 2006 9:31 am
- Location: Finger Lakes, NY
To hear more music, and learn more about the hurdy-gurdy than you ever thought there was to learn, go here.
Life is like playing chess with chessmen who each have thoughts and feelings and motives of their own.
- Slava
- Great Grand Panjandrum
- Posts: 8229
- Joined: Thu Sep 28, 2006 9:31 am
- Location: Finger Lakes, NY
See http://www.alphadictionary.com/bb/viewtopic.php?t=4349 for a short discussion of this one.willy-nilly
Is this perhaps originally
will he, nil he
in other words, whether he wants to or not...
Life is like playing chess with chessmen who each have thoughts and feelings and motives of their own.
Return to “Good Word Discussion”
Who is online
Users browsing this forum: Ahrefs [Bot] and 0 guests