Blood & Thunder-to-Butterfly

University of Chicago Professors Sir William A. Craigie* and James R. Hulbert, editors of A Dictionary of American English on Historical Principles, and their associates, who for twelve years have been working on separating U. S. English from English English (TIME, Sept. 21, 1936), were almost finished with the Bs last week. Issued by the University of Chicago Press was the third section of their dictionary, Blood and Thunder-- Butterfly.

Dictionary of American English lists words that 1) originated in the U.S. 2) have disappeared in England, or 3) have changed their meaning since emigration from England. Listed in Part III are such everyday words as build (in the sense of "construct"), which was only in literary use in England before it became common coin in the U. S.; bull, bimch, bumper, burial ground, bum, bunkum, boss, bluff (derived from the game of poker), business (meaning an occupation or industry).

The word bluestocking, coined in 1790, is defined as "a woman with literary tastes or pretensions." As to bloomer (originally the name of a costume consisting of a short skirt and loose trousers gathered around the ankles, later becoming bloomers-), the dictionary says that Mrs. Amelia Bloomer gave it its name, but did not invent it. Explanation: "For some years she edited and published, at Seneca Falls, N. Y., a magazine called The Lily, in which (February, 1851) the new costume appears to have been first mentioned in print."

American English's editors have done considerable research into the etymology and practice of bundling (partly undressed, unmarried couples occupying the same bed for warmth). Said an early Connecticut historian (1781): "Notwithstanding the great modesty of the females ... it is thought but a piece of civility to ask her to bundle: a custom as old as the first settlement in 1634." Another writer reported: "When a girl, that was old enough to be married, had a suitor who had been a few times to see her, the parents, if they approved of the connection, would--what they called--bundle them; which bundling implied, putting them to bed together, the lady with only her under-petticoat on, and her sweetheart nothing but his breeches." Although this practice was denounced in some quarters as "that mischievous, wicked habit," in 1840 a commentator remarked: "Ten irregular citizens are now born to the republic, for one in those days of bundling simplicity."

*Now supervising preparation of the American dictionary from England, where he is also editing A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue.

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