Wikipedia is outstanding!
I am a word nerd. I love using the exact right word, and knowing the history of words. I think of it as the history of humanity, which I am also big on. I spent a lot of (probably wasted) college years in the anthropology department of my local university.
One word mystery I was introduced to some time (read over twenty years) ago and could never resolve was the "tinker's dam" - a piece of clay used in the metalsmith trade versus "tinker's damn" - an insult to the speech of tinkers. I was introduced to it by my spouse, another word nerd, with a much wider field of study in history, literature, and folk music
A while ago, I decided to look it up in wikipedia. Tinker's dam wasn't there at all, but tinker was - with a very long note about the use of "tinker" and "traveler" in England to refer to Romany Gypsies, and many references to the fact that the writer and his ilk looked down on such folk as highly inferior in every way.
I learned some things I never knew in that article. In this country, the tinker was a skilled and valued part of our history, someone who traveled long, lonely miles between homesteads, providing the needed repairs that could keep a farm functioning. Gypsies of any sort, though present in the big cities, were so far out of my experience that I simply gave them very little thought. I have, however, seen many groups disparaged just for being different in some way, so did not give much credence to that part of the article.
I left wikipedia that day, with the idea that my definition would never fit in with the other, and a promise to myself that I would come back with my ducks in a row some time. (Yeah, right.)
This morning, I decided, was the day. I brought my Webster's in for reference, and went for it. Only to find that the entire article had been removed and replaced with an excellent history of metalsmiths, with references, and that tinker's dam/n was in there, including both definitions, a history of the controversy, and the fact that it will probably never be resolved. It had been added in November of 2006, not that long ago.
I no longer feel the need to fight the fight. The record is there for all to see, worded far better than I might have done it. I am calm.
Besides, the controversy really wasn't worth a tinker's dam/n to begin with.
Now I want to know about "the whole nine yards".
One word mystery I was introduced to some time (read over twenty years) ago and could never resolve was the "tinker's dam" - a piece of clay used in the metalsmith trade versus "tinker's damn" - an insult to the speech of tinkers. I was introduced to it by my spouse, another word nerd, with a much wider field of study in history, literature, and folk music
A while ago, I decided to look it up in wikipedia. Tinker's dam wasn't there at all, but tinker was - with a very long note about the use of "tinker" and "traveler" in England to refer to Romany Gypsies, and many references to the fact that the writer and his ilk looked down on such folk as highly inferior in every way.
I learned some things I never knew in that article. In this country, the tinker was a skilled and valued part of our history, someone who traveled long, lonely miles between homesteads, providing the needed repairs that could keep a farm functioning. Gypsies of any sort, though present in the big cities, were so far out of my experience that I simply gave them very little thought. I have, however, seen many groups disparaged just for being different in some way, so did not give much credence to that part of the article.
I left wikipedia that day, with the idea that my definition would never fit in with the other, and a promise to myself that I would come back with my ducks in a row some time. (Yeah, right.)
This morning, I decided, was the day. I brought my Webster's in for reference, and went for it. Only to find that the entire article had been removed and replaced with an excellent history of metalsmiths, with references, and that tinker's dam/n was in there, including both definitions, a history of the controversy, and the fact that it will probably never be resolved. It had been added in November of 2006, not that long ago.
I no longer feel the need to fight the fight. The record is there for all to see, worded far better than I might have done it. I am calm.
Besides, the controversy really wasn't worth a tinker's dam/n to begin with.
Now I want to know about "the whole nine yards".