Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Billibodring

Meaning: Williams suggests that this means 'phallic jousting', hypothesising that the billi element is related to billy-goats (notoriously lustful), and the bod a shortened bourd, which has two meanings: jesting or banter, or playful jousting.* As an Urquhartian original, meaning and etymology is speculative; you could make up your own.

Usefulness: 1 (metaphorically - think of all those situations where guys are attempting to out-bloke each other. "If you two are done with the billibodring, can we get the meat off the barbecue?" "The meeting was pointless; the suits spent the entire time billibodring." "Dinner was awful, but the guys were billibodring about their cellars, so we had some incredible wine.")

Logofascination: 1

In the wild: no, but did you know that goats appear in the etymology of chevron? The OED tells me that goats are in 123 etymologies, and, given their reputation, we haven't seen the end of them this week.

Degrees: 0

Connections: n/a

Which is used in: apologies if this is the umpteenth time you've read this citation, but, yes, the -mancy chapter of G&P (Book the Third, XXV), as discussed yesterday and every Thursday. Herr Trippa tells Panurge:
Thou shalt not need to put on thy spectacles, for in a mirror thou wilt see her as clearly and manifestly nebrundiated and billibodring it.
And now you know what he meant. Maybe.


*I think this second definition makes bourd quite useful in its own right. 

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