Thursday, September 15, 2011

Lousie (for Louise)

I hope you're all having a good day today. But to tell you the truth, although I usually love this "Indian summer" time of year (every little breeze seems to whisper Louise), for me it's been an exceptionally lousy month. Everything from a sprained ankle to a pinched nerve, a fainting spell, a bad cold, and a superfluity of mosquito bites ... I suppose I should just be glad I don't have head lice to boot! The word lousy has a fascinating history and a multifaceted definition going back several centuries (it was first recorded in Chaucer's Friar's Tale). I was also rather intrigued to learn that louse land was once a "prejudicial name for Scotland." There were 25 cases of today's typo lousing up records in OhioLINK, and WorldCat is lousy with them as well: 452 for Lousie alone and 279 for Lousie + Louise. I know you're just itching to get started on this one!

(Lousy Watchman, or Anoplotrupes stercorosus, June 25, 2006, from Wikimedia Commons.)

Carol Reid

1 comment:

Felicity Pickup said...

Also try: Lousiana + Louisiana