Nabbity
NABBITY
Short in stature, but full grown; said of a diminutive female. A ludicrous derivative from nab, "to catch, as a bird catches insects in its bill," as if the little creature might be taken up between one's finger and thumb.
-Rev. Robert Forby's Vocabulary of East Anglia, 1830
Birthday of Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881),
influential English prime minister, one of whose favorite dishes included ortolans, a small, apparently tasty migratory European bird. According to Frederick Hackwood's Good Cheer: The Romance of Food and Feasting (1911), the epicurean French King "Louis VIII invented a dish called truffes à la purée d'ortolans. The happy few who tasted this dish, as personally concocted by Louis, described it as "the very perfection of the culinary art itself." Disraeli, having perhaps sampled a preparation inspired by Louis's kitchen brilliance, once fantasized about his final moments, saying, "Let me die eating ortolans to the sound of soft music." When the end came there were no ortolans, but he was nonetheless in good spirits. Disraeli declined a visit from Queen Victoria, quipping wryly:
No, it is better not. She will only ask me to take a message to Albert.
from: Jeffrey Kacirk's Forgotten English 2006 Calendar
Short in stature, but full grown; said of a diminutive female. A ludicrous derivative from nab, "to catch, as a bird catches insects in its bill," as if the little creature might be taken up between one's finger and thumb.
-Rev. Robert Forby's Vocabulary of East Anglia, 1830
Birthday of Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881),
influential English prime minister, one of whose favorite dishes included ortolans, a small, apparently tasty migratory European bird. According to Frederick Hackwood's Good Cheer: The Romance of Food and Feasting (1911), the epicurean French King "Louis VIII invented a dish called truffes à la purée d'ortolans. The happy few who tasted this dish, as personally concocted by Louis, described it as "the very perfection of the culinary art itself." Disraeli, having perhaps sampled a preparation inspired by Louis's kitchen brilliance, once fantasized about his final moments, saying, "Let me die eating ortolans to the sound of soft music." When the end came there were no ortolans, but he was nonetheless in good spirits. Disraeli declined a visit from Queen Victoria, quipping wryly:
No, it is better not. She will only ask me to take a message to Albert.
from: Jeffrey Kacirk's Forgotten English 2006 Calendar